SPEECHES 



INCIDENT TO THE 



Visit of Philander Chase Knox 



Secretary of State of the United States of America 



TO THE 



Countries of the Caribbean 



FEBRUARY 23 TO APRIL 17. 1912 



WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1913 



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D. OF D. 
FEB 19 1913 



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CONTENTS 

Page 

Itinerary viii 

I 

Speeches in Panama 1-16 

Welcome upon arrival at Colon, February 27, 
1912 : 

His Excellency Demosthenes Arose- 

mena 3 

Mr. Philander C. Knox 5 

At Panama City, at banquet given by Minis- 
ter for Foreign Affairs, February 28, 191 2: 

His Excellency Aristides Arjona 6 

Mr. Philander C. Knox 11 

n 

Speeches in Costa Rica ^7-29 

At a dinner at San Jose, March 3, 1912: 

His Excellency President Ricardo Jime- 
nez 19 

Mr. Philander C. Knox 24 

At luncheon on board the "Maryland", 
March 4, 191 2: 

Mr. Philander C. Knox 29 

HI 

Speeches in Nicaragua 31-68 

At railroad station, Managua, March 5, 1912: 

Mr. Philander C. Knox 33 

III 



IV CONTENTS. 

Speeches in Nicaragua — Continued. 

Reception by President of Nicaragua, March 

6, I 91 2: Page 

His Excellency President Adolfo Diaz... 34 

Mr. Philander C. Knox 38 

At the National Assembly, March 6, 1912: 

Dr. Ignacio Suarez 46 

Mr. Philander C. Knox 53 

At the Supreme Court, March 6, 1912: 

Dr. Alfonso Solorzano 58 

Mr. Philander C. Knox 61 

At banquet given by Minister for Foreign 
Affairs, March 6, 191 2: 

His Excellency Diego M. Chamorro 62 

Mr. Philander C. Knox 67 

IV 

Speeches in Honduras 69-81 

At luncheon given by Minister for Foreign 
Affairs at Amapala, March 8, 1912: 

His Excellency Mariano Vasquez 71 

Mr. Philander C. Knox 74 

At luncheon on the "Maryland," March 9, 
1912 : 

Mr. Philander C. Knox 77 

His Excellency Mariano Vasquez 79 

V 
Speeches in Salvador 83-95 

Welcome upon arrival at San Salvador, 

March 11, 1912 : 

His Excellency President Manuel Aran jo.. 85 

Mr. Philander C. Knox 87 



CONTENTS. V 

Speeches in Salvador — Continued. 

At banquet given by Minister for Foreign 

Affairs, March ii, 191 2: Page 

His Excellency Francisco Duenas 88 

Mr. Philander C. Knox 91 

VI 

Speeches in Guatemala 97-126 

Reception by President of Guatemala, March 

14, 1912: 

Mr. Philander C. Knox 99 

His Excellency President Estrada Ca- 
brera 10 1 

At banquet given by Minister for Foreign 
Affairs, March 14, 1912: 

His Excellency Luis Toledo Herrarte... 103 

Mr. Philander C. Knox 107 

At reception by Legislative Assembly, March 

15, 1912: 

Senor Don Arturo Ubico in 

Mr. Philander C. Knox 114 

At University of Guatemala, March 15, 1912 : 

Licenciado Manuel Cabral 117 

Mr. Philander C. Knox 120 

At banquet given by President of Guatemala, 
March 16, 1912: 

His Excellency Estrada Cabrera 121 

Mr. Philander C. Knox 123 



VI CONTENTS. 



VII 



Pace 

Speeches in Venezuela 127-145 

At Independence Hall, Caracas, March 23, 
1912 : 

Dr. Marquez Bustillos...; 129 

Mr. Philander C. Knox 130 

At Bolivar statue: 

Mr. Philander C. Knox 131 

At banquet given by Minister for Foreign 
Affairs, March 24, 191 2: 

His Excellency Manuel A. Matos 132 

Mr. Philander C. Knox 135 

Farewell to President of Venezuela, March 
25, 1912: 

Mr. Philander C. Knox 139 

At railway station at Valencia, March 25, 
1912 : 

President of the State of Carabobo 140 

Mr. Philander C. Knox 142 

At Puerto Cabello, March 25, 1912: 

Collector of Customs of Puerto Cabello.. 143 

Mr. Philander C. Knox 145 

VIII 

Speeches in the Dominican Republic 147-153 

Reception by President of Dominican Re- 
public, March 27, 1912: 

Mr. Philander C. Knox 149 

His Excellency President Eladio Vic- 
toria 153 



CONTENTS. VII 

IX. Page 

Speeches in Haiti 155-172 

Welcome upon arrival at Port au Prince, 
April 3, 191 2: 

M. Jerome Salomon, Mayor of Port au 

Prince 157 

Mr. Philander C. Knox 159 

At luncheon given by Minister for Foreign 
Affairs, April 3, 191 2: 

Mr. J. N. Leger 161 

Mr. Philander C. Knox 163 

At banquet given by President of Haiti, 
April 3, 1912 : 

His Excellency President Leconte 165 

Mr. Philander C. Knox 167 

At Bellevue Club, April 4, 191 2: 

Mr. Philander C. Knox 171 

X 
Speeches in Cuba 173-188 

At banquet given by President of Cuba, Ha- 
bana, April 11, 1912: 

His Excellency Sefior Manuel Sanguily.. 175 

Mr. Philander C. Knox 184 

XI 

Speeches on board the "Washington", April 14, 

191 2 189-202 

Mr. Philander C. Knox 191 

Mr. Hale, of the World's Work 194 

Hon. Martin W. Littleton 197 

Judge Morgan O'Brien 200 

XH 

Statement to the press by Mr. Knox, Washing- 
ton, April 17, 1912 203-208 



ITINERARY 



Date of 
arrival. 


Date of 
departure. 


Feb. 


2.S 


Feb. 


23 


Feb. 


27 


Feb. 


27 


Feb. 


27 


Feb. 


29 


Feb. 


29 


Feb. 


29 


Mar. 


I 


Mar. 


I 


Mar. 


I 


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4 


Mar. 


4 


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4 


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S 


Mar. 


S 


Mar. 


5 


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7 


Mar. 


7 


Mar. 


7 


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8 


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9 


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Mar. 


10 


Mar. 


10 


Mar. 


13 


Mar. 


i,S 


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14 


Mar. 


14 


Mar. 


14 


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17 


Mar. 


17 


Mar. 


17 


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22 


Mar. 


22 


Mar. 


22 


Mar. 


2S 


Mar. 


2S 


Mar. 


2S 


Mar. 


27 


Mar. 


28 


Mar. 


,^0 


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Mar. 


31 


Apr. 


I 


Apr. 
Apr. 
Apr. 
Apr. 
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5 

5 

6 

8 

8 

II 

16 

17 


Apr. 
Apr. 
Apr. 
Apr. 
Apr. 
Apr. 
Apr. 
Apr. 


4 

5 
6 

7 

8 

8 

13 

17 



Key West, Fla 

Colon, Panama 

Panama City, Panama 

Colon, Panama , 

Port Limon, Costa Rica 

San Jose de Costa Rica 

Puntarenas, Costa Rica 

Corinto, Nicaragua , 

Managua, Nicaragua , 

Corinto, Nicaragua , 

Amapala, Honduras , 

Acajutla, Salvador , 

San Salvador, Salvador 

Acajutla, Salvador 

San Jose de Guatemala 

Guatemala City 

Puerto Barrios, Guatemala 

La Guaira, Venezuela 

Caracas, Venezuela 

Puerto Cabello, Venezuela 

Santo Domingo City 

St. Thomas 

San Juan, Porto Rico 

Port au Prince, Haiti 

Guantanamo, Cuba 

Santiago de Cuba 

Guantanamo, Cuba 

Kingston, Jamaica 

Port Antonio, Jamaica 

Habana, Cuba 

Piney Point, Md 

Washington, D. C 



speeches in Panama 



s 105— I 



Address of welcojne of Senoi" Demosthenes Arose- 
mena, Gover?ior of Colon Province, on the arrival 
of the Secretary of State at Colon, Febriiary ^/, 
igi2. 

[Translation.] 

Mr. Secretary: 

As the representative of my country's Govern- 
ment in this part of the Republic, the honor of 
offering you a cordial greeting upon your arrival on 
our shores in the name of the Panaman nation 
devolves upon me. 

The Panaman nation, to whom you are well 
known, greets in you an eminent statesman of a 
nation which marches in the vanguard of the civili- 
zation and progress of the American continent, and 
it highly appreciates the visit of so distinguished a 
guest. 

Panama, to whom you are especially persona 
grata, regards as an honor the presence of so illustri- 
ous a representative of the great American Union, 
which, in an hour of trial for the Isthmians, fearlessly 
assumed before the world an obligation which it has 
fulfilled, and will, no doubt, in the future most loyally 
fulfill, of guaranteeing and maintaining the sover- 
eignty and independence of the youngest Republic of 
this continent, and 400,000 Panamans are at this mo- 
ment hoping that upon leaving our shores you will 

3 



4 PANAMA. 

carry with you as agreeable a memory of the coun- 
try as your visit will doubtless leave in their breasts. 
Welcome, Mr. Secretary, to this Republic, which 
gladly contributes to the aggrandizement and pros- 
perity of your country with the only thing possi- 
ble — with its territory. 



Reply of Mr. Knox. 



Excellency: 

In the name of the people of the United States, 
the President of the United States, for my party, 
and for myself, I desire to express to you our deep 
gratitude for the cordiality of this welcome when 
we have first touched the shore in the Republic 
of Panama and in the ancient city named for the 
great discoverer of America. This reception is ex- 
tremely flattering to me, because it indicates that 
the people of Panama respond to the sentiment that 
inspired the President of the United States, and 
whose inspiration has been cordially and fully in- 
dorsed by the people of the United States, to send 
me hither as a bearer of a message of good feeling, 
friendship, and kindliness to the people of this Re- 
public and the other peoples of the Caribbean lit- 
toral. I have sincerely to thank you all for this 
manifestation of the sympathy which is thus shown 
toward us, and I shall repeat to you only what I have 
said before — that is, thanks — which I am sure will 
find a response in the hearts of the American 
people. 



speech of His Excellency A ristides Arjo7ia, Minister 
for Foreign Affairs of Pa?ia?na, at a dinner 
given to Mr. Knox at Panama City, February 
28, igi2. 

[Translation.] 

Mr. Secretary Knox: 

When the cable and the press announced a few 
days ago your visit to some of the Central and 
South American republics, the citizens who repre- 
sent the brain and the heart of these nations, as if 
moved by a single potent impulse, made ready with 
their eyes fixed upon you, who can not be other 
than a bearer of good tidings and an inspirer of 
wholesome political policies for the Latin-American 
countries. 

These countries, Mr. Secretary, relatively young, 
as compared with those of the old continent, are 
eager, in this delicate period of their existence, 
for such examples and teachings as may be offered 
by your great nation, which holds properly the 
first place in the civilization and progress of this 
hemisphere. 

The youth, the blood, the race, and the idiosyn- 
cracies, in short, of these countries tend to make 
them appear impulsive in the grave questions in 
which a solution is needed for complicated social 
and political problems, since, in truth, opposing 
tendencies and judgments degenerate sometimes 

6 



ARJONA. 7 

into internal complications with prejudicial conse- 
quences to the Latin-American family. On the 
other hand, in your country; the United States, 
the model Republic, a clear, temperate judgment, 
cold as the snows of those beautiful latitudes, can 
at all times be brought to bear upon the series of 
difficult problems which present themselves to the 
intelligence and activity of statesmen like your- 
self; and therefore Latin-American nations, guided 
by a common purpose to become great, receive 
with interest and pleasure your visit, which can 
have no other object than to stimulate and benefit 
them. Considering the facts thus, I do not hesitate 
to acknowledge that only a noble altruism guides 
you, that only lofty ideals inspire your acts, and 
that only your marked interest in the future of these 
entities of young America has impelled you to lay 
aside your delicate and multifarious official duties 
in your own country to come to strengthen the ties 
of friendship, interest, and sympathy which join 
them with your nation, increasing the prestige which 
has been attained by the wise diplomacy of North 
America. 

The Republic of Panama, mistress of the two 
greatest bodies of water which bathe the world, has 
a thousand reasons to be grateful to you and to 
your Government, and to-day has another reason 
in considering that it is the first w4iich you have 
chosen to honor with your visit, you who intend to 
proceed to the other countries, which wnll receive 
you cordially, as an illustrious and distinguished 



8 PANAMA. 

guest, with ovations expressive of their feelings. 
Panama knows that your mission is one of laudable 
patriotism and international concord, and doubts not 
that it will also know how to respond to the call of 
American confraternity which you have addressed 
to it, since it aspires loyally to aid you in the work 
of Pan-American progress which you carry on with 
such success and w^hich will make your name im- 
perishable in the records of the world of Columbus. 

You know well, Mr. Secretary, that the Re- 
public of Panama will always be in accord with 
your lofty views of international policy. A thou- 
sand reasons for perpetual gratitude and lasting 
union bind the inhabitants of the Isthmus to the 
American Government and people; therefore, your 
triumphs will always have our sincere plaudits and 
the possibility of your reverses as a nation will 
always be considered by us as a personal calamity. 

The gigantic work of the Interoceanic Canal, 
which astonishes the w^hole world, is the principal 
factor in the community of interests and the reci- 
procity of sentiment which characterize the relations 
between our countries. To protect this great work, 
which is already nearing conclusion, the Republic 
of Panama will omit neither care nor effort, since 
it wnll always hold in remembrance the protection 
received from your nation when it took its first 
steps as a sovereign state and the wise purpose 
which has guided your country in all the acts in 
which its assistance has been necessary to secure 
the benefits acquired with our independence. 



ARJONA. 9 

The work of the representatives of your Gov- 
ernment in this RepubHc and in the Zone of the 
Canal has been most appropriate and -beneficial. 
Confining myself to the present, I will mention the 
able diplomat, Mr, Dodge, who maintains upon a 
high plane the relations between both countries. 
At the head of the civil administration, Governor 
Thatcher is a model of zeal and intelligence. Col- 
onel Gorgas, with his well-disciplined officials in 
the sanitary department, has effectively removed 
the dark and horrible specter of epidemics; and, 
finally, Colonel Goethals, the man of iron, of trained 
mentality, of never-sufficiently-praised energy, the 
supreme director of the stupendous work of the 
canal, with his constant and honorable zeal to immor- 
talize the name of the United States in that of the 
colossal work, offers to your powerful country the 
splendid spectacle, which all powers will witness 
with delight, of the rapid passage of ships through 
the channel which is being opened by the unceasing 
blows of the marvelous arm of the North American 
Nation. A day of glory, recorded with letters of 
gold in the annals of the Republic of Panama, will 
be that upon which traffic through the new road is 
opened. The world, astounded, will contemplate 
the celebration which will crown the glory of the 
people and Government of the United States and 
which, at the cost of enormous sacrifice, will be the 
most valuable offering presented upon the altar of 
universal progress. 



lO PANAMA. 

Welcome, therefore, illustrious Mr. Secretary. 
Behold in the people of the Republic of Panama, 
which has for you the immense gratitude of the pro- 
teg6, more than a friend, a true brother; and in the 
name of the Government and of all the citizens of 
my country accept this modest expression of appre- 
ciation and sympathy which we have dedicated to 
you for your entertainment. When you return to 
your country, tell the American Government and 
people, in the name of the Republic of Panama, that 
we, the people of the Isthmus, are bound to them 
with the same ties, with the same eternal bonds, 
with which at no distant time, to the astonishment 
of the world and for all eternity, the deep, blue 
waters of the Atlantic and the Pacific will be united. 



Reply of Mr. Knox. 



Mr. President, Ladies, and Gentlemen: 

It is an honor and a sincere pleasure to be your 
guest and the recipient of the cordial welcome of 
Panama. It is a privilege to stand upon the 
threshold of the consummation of the greatest 
work done by man in or for the world and to feel 
that one is not a stranger upon the soil dedicated 
from the creation to be the scene of the supreme 
effort for human advancement when man's require- 
ments demanded it and man's genius should be 
equal to the task. 

When the necessities of the world's first civili- 
zation could be no longer supplied and its aspira- 
tions no longer satisfied in its oriental abode it was 
natural that the pioneers of those days should make 
their first explorations by following the path of the 
life-giving sun in its daily journeys toward the 
West. 

The fruits of their first timid ventures em- 
boldened them to more ambitious endeavor, and 
the ever-increasing rewards resulting from the dis- 
covery of continents and seas beckoned them on 
until, halted here by another world, they seemed to 
have fulfilled their mission of companion discov- 
erers with the sun, which passed on in solitude 
toward and into the unknown. 



12 PANAMA 

It was not until 15 13, when Balboa stood "silent 
upon a peak in Darien" and gazed upon the waters 
of the Pacific, that it was evident that the hand that 
gave the seas and formed the land left it possible 
to divide the hemisphere which halted western 
progress, even as Moses had divided the Red Sea 
that the children of Israel might pass, and though 
the hands of the early navigators were unskilled 
for the gigantic task their imaginations grasped 
the possibility of its successful realization. 

The history of the project to build an isthmian 
canal is full of strange national and personal disap- 
pointments. Perhaps the most tragic of them all 
is that, coincident with Spain's loss of the last 
vestige of her sovereignty in the New World, the 
final act of the realization of the dreams of her 
great navigators began. 

After many vicissitudes and failures the comple- 
tion of this stupendous work devolved upon the 
people of the United States, who are thus thrown 
into relations with the countries of the isthmian 
region which, with our geographical propinquity, 
make a broader understanding and a more sympa- 
thetic reciprocal interest between us an essential 
basis for the realization of the splendid possibilities 
which seem to have been decreed from the begin- 
ning of time. 

The President of the United States believes 
that the early completion of the Panama Canal 
should mark the beginning of closer relations to 
all Latin America, and especially to the Caribbean 



KNOX. 13 

littoral, as well as the relations of these countries to 
each other, and, impelled by the thought that this 
is an auspicious moment, through better acquaint- 
ance, to lay the foundations upon which there 
should rest a broader confidence, a closer sympathy, 
and more practical reciprocal helpfulness, has sent 
me hither as a bearer of a message of good will to 
our sister American republics. It is the Presi- 
dent's desire that I might personally meet your 
most hospitable peoples, might see for myself your 
beautiful countries, with their boundless resources 
and economic possibilities, to the end that such di- 
rect personal knowledge, understanding, and appre- 
ciation might result in mutual advantage and in co- 
operation for the development of all our countries. 
Responding to the hospitality of the country which 
has first and so generously received me and with 
which the relations of my country are so cordially 
intimate, I take this opportunity of assuring all the 
American republics that the purpose of the United 
States toward them is that we should live in amity 
and essential harmony and that we desire only that 
more peace, more prosperity, m^ore happiness, and 
more security should come in and become a part of 
their individual and national lives. 

While it is entirely clear to those who have 
fairly and intelligently considered the history of the 
relations of the United States to the other Ameri- 
can republics that our politics have been without 
a trace of sinister motive or design, craving neither 
sovereignty nor territory, yet it is true that our mo- 



14 PANAMA. 

tives toward you have not always been fortunately 
interpreted either at home or faithfully represented 
by some of our nationals who have resided in your 
midst. 

While we have much to learn of each other and 
are all to be vastly profited by clear and more sym- 
pathetic ties, yet between the elder and the younger 
republics there is much in common. 

A commonwealth founded on freedom of con- 
science and security of individual rights is not an 
exclusive heritage of Saxon America, but one shared 
by all the peoples of the hemisphere who, like our- 
selves, have passed through the sore trials that 
attend the founding of new communities in a new 
land. However diverse our physical environments, 
however great the contrast between the natural 
obstacles to be surmounted, whether amid the snows 
and pine forests of the north or in the sierras of 
the Equator and the pampas of the south, the 
aim of our respective enterprises, expressed in the 
undying words of Lincoln, has been the same, to 
bring forth on this continent new nations, conceived 
in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all 
men are created equal. 

Much has been said about the effect of the open- 
ing of the Panama Canal, but I believe it is given 
to few of us to realize what magic possibilities are 
potential in that event. As I conceive it, it will 
create for our Western World an entirely new situa- 
tion, a situation fraught with possibilities so vast 
they daze the fancy of the mind. In this new 



KNOX. 15 

world we must be found drawn closer by sympathies 
and mutual esteem, and working in harmony toward 
beneficent ends. This must be so, for our greatest 
interests are those that are common to us all. We 
who live on the Western Hemisphere find ourselves 
by force of geography in circumstances which make 
our situation peculiar, and this fundamental fact 
gives us privileges and imposes upon us duties and 
obligations we would not otherwise have. It was 
a perception of this, which your own thinkers and 
statesmen have seen as clearly as our own, which 
prompted the announcement by President Monroe 
of the great and beneficent policy that now bears 
his name. When the canal is opened and the ships 
of all the countries of the world come sailing through 
these Carib seas, the peculiarity of our position with 
its special requirement will be accentuated and the 
wisdom of that doctrine confirmed again and spe- 
cially. It serves admittedly your interests as much 
as ours. Even now it is a great bond between 
us. In its future amplification I perceive it will be 
a common heritage binding together the nations of 
this hemisphere with a force no power can break, 
and while it has in Providence been given to us of 
the north to state and interpret it, it has never been 
invoked to the detriment of the people of the south 
or operated to their hurt. 

In my judgment the Monroe Doctrine will reach 
the acme of its beneficence when it is regarded by 
the people of the United States as a reason why we 
should constantly respond to the needs of those of 



l6 PANAMA. 

our Latin-American neighbors who may find neces- 
sity for our assistance in their progress toward bet- 
ter government or who may seek our aid to meet 
their just obligations and thereby to maintain hon- 
orable relations to the family of nations. Great 
as will be the glory of having physicall}^ divided a 
hemisphere, a greater glory will be to have con- 
tributed to the unity, happiness, and prosperity of 
its people. 

It is a paradox that the severance of the physical 
ligament that joins the two continents of the New 
World will more closely unite them. Culebra is 
the clot in the artery of intercourse whose removal 
will give free and full circulation throughout the 
whole organism to the vivifying currents of friend- 
ship, peace, commerce, and prosperity. 

When the waters of the two oceans are blended 
on the soil of Panama it will make curious changes 
in the geography of the Americas. All that is south 
of the Isthmus will be nearer to all that is north, 
and all that is north will, in a peculiar sense, be 
more closely drawn together. The Central Ameri- 
can republics will be the tropical end of a vast 
island whose northern limits will extend to the 
eternal ice and whose southern boundary will be a 
continuous procession of the commerce of the world. 



II 



Speeches in Costa Rica 



S 105 2 17 



speech of His Excellency Ricardo Jimenez, Presi- 
dent of Costa Rica, at a dinner given to Mr. 
Knox at San Josi, March j, igi2. 



[Translation.*] 



You are welcome to Costa Rica, distinguished 
representative of the United States of America, 
that friendly country that from remote times and in 
a variety of ways has exercised such a far-reaching 
influence over the destinies of this Republic. 

A little time after the thirteen colonies, accord- 
ing to the terms of your Declaration of Independ- 
ence, "assumed, among the powers of the earth, the 
separate and equal station to which the laws of nature 
and of nature's God entitle them", the Spanish col- 
onies, stirred up by the revolutionary fermentation 
of the north and encouraged by your noble exam- 
ple, repeated and made good your words, applying 
them to themselves, declaring that "they were, and 
of right ought to be, free and independent States"; 
and so it was, sir, that Costa Rica, without hatred 
toward and even without disaffection for Spain, 
and carried along by the wave of emancipation that 
swept over the New World from Massachusetts to 
the Argentine, abandoned her secular vassalage and 
assumed the sovereign arbitration of her destiny. 

* Translation furnished by Costa Rican Government. 

19 



20 COSTA RICA. 

Nevertheless, it was very possible, above all in 
Central America, that our exercise of sovereignty 
would only have been a momentary eclipse of Euro- 
pean domination, of this or that state, if it had not 
been for the joint Anglo-American action and if 
the United States had not pronounced in 1823, 
through the mouth of President Monroe, its for- 
midable veto. The American Eagle then spread 
its wings over this continent and in its flight joined 
that of the "nopal" and the condors of the south. 
And from that epoch the schemes of conquest or 
reconquest of the ancient colonies were consigned 
to the dominions of things past and gone forever. 

But there is another benefit that we owe to your 
country, the greatest of all, without which all others 
would be mere dross : We have cast our institutions 
in the moulding-sand of yours. In our first at- 
tempts in the exercise of self-government — the only 
kind that deserves the decorous respect of men — we 
learned to spell in your famous document of Decla- 
ration of Independence that "all men are created 
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with 
certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, 
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"; and consist- 
ent with these fundamental principles, as incon- 
trovertible now at the beginning of the twentieth 
century as they were at the end of the eighteenth, we 
regulated our political system, and within that sys- 
tem the smallest Republic of this hemisphere lives 
happily, "without envying others or being envied 
by them", in the same manner as your wonderful 



JIMENEZ. 21 

country, enjoying all the privileges of that same 
system, also lives felicitously, a palpable demonstra- 
tion that self-government, with powers distributed 
and limited, with liberty of speech and a free press, 
of effective and extensive individual rights, a gov- 
ernment that derives its just powers from the con- 
sent of the governed, is beneficent everywhere — 
at least in America — with that same universality of 
the mathematical laws that are equally appropriate 
for fixing the course of the planets as they are for 
arranorina: the most humble transactions of men. 

I hope, sir, that the personal knowledge of our 
institutions and customs may excite in you a feel- 
ing of true pride and pleasure on seeing many of 
the seeds of good government bearing fruit in this 
little corner of America, snatched from your fields 
of liberty by the winds that carry civilization from 
country to country, and dropped by them here and 
there in all parts of the world. 

There will be perpetual peace between the 
United States and the Republic of Costa Rica! 
These were the prophetic words of Daniel Webster, 
stamped on the treaty of 1851, which bears his 
signature. Consecrated by the lapse of time the 
things that have happened since then have con- 
firmed this prophesy. Our mutual relations of 
countrymen with countrymen have grown in a con- 
stant manner. We sell in the markets of the 
United States 60 per cent of our exportations, and 
in exchange we buy in them 60 per cent of the 
articles that Costa Rica imports. This present 



22 COSTA RICA. 

condition of reciprocity is an excellent sign that 
prognosticates the firmness of our future relations. 
In negotiating, we enter into mutual relations with 
others, and to have amicable intercourse with others 
is to be known, to be appreciated, and to consoli- 
date friendships. Attracted by the fertility of our 
soils and the riches of our mines, and, I presume, 
attracted also by our peacefulness • and by the 
respect we show to strangers, their properties and 
creeds, you will find here a great number of your 
fellow countrymen managing large capitals of their 
own or of persons who reside in the United States. 
Far from frowning upon their good luck, we are 
pleased to see it; and as their gains are not derived 
through legislative favors, their prosperity does not 
diminish, but, on the contrary, helps to augment 
vigorously the prosperity of the nation. 

Lastly, Mr. Secretary, it is not possible to pass 
over in silence that share which, through our initia- 
tive and confident acts, your country has taken in 
the limitation of the territory of this Republic. An 
American hand, the just hand of Mr. Cleveland, of 
blessed memory, marked our boundaries on the 
north; and another American hand, the hand of 
Mr. White, in which hangs, happily for you and 
also for us, the scales of justice, will trace our south- 
ern frontier. In the arrangement that Costa Rica 
and Panama made to this effect, you put, out of 
consideration to both parties, the valuable contin- 
gent of your skill, your benevolence and friendly 
interest, and I am delighted to be able to take 



JIMENEZ. 23 

advantage of this occasion to express to you by word 
of mouth the profound gratitude that from that 
time we Costa Ricans owe to you, a gratitude that 
expands, now that we find ourselves honored with 
your visit. And I am confident that this advent 
of yours will leave in us a wake of fellow feeling, 
not like that made by the furrow that the ship forms 
in the waters, to be destroyed by them immediately 
afterwards, but a wake as wide and luminous as it is 
permanent. 

Based in these antecedents is inspired the cor- 
diality with which I drink your health, Mr. Secretary, 
and also that of President Taft, and in the same 
way the health of the people of the United States; 
and as that great country does not now see in any 
quarter a cloud that may darken the splendor of its 
power, I hope that it may never see the refulgent 
sun of justice eclipsed on its horizons, so that its 
greatness and moderation, without losing their 
force for a moment, may continue shining over the 
world until the end of time. 

To your health, Mr. Secretary. 



Reply of Mr. Knox, 



Mr. President, Ladies, and Gentlemen: 

It is indeed a pleasure for me, Mr. President, to 
acknowledge how deeply I appreciate the generous 
sentiment you have proposed and the honor you do 
me, and through me the American people, by show- 
ering upon me your bounteous and cordial hospi- 
tality, thereby evincing your sympathetic response 
to the spirit which has inspired my mission to you. 
I know that I am acknowledging no feigned friend- 
ship or simulated courtesy, but that the great heart of 
Costa Rica has responded to the heart of her most 
northern sister republic. The similarity of our 
political organizations, our geographical proximity, 
the tendency of our commercial and industrial inter- 
ests and policies, and our traditional and long-con- 
tinued relations of friendship and good will inspired 
in the President of the United States the sincere 
desire that our sympathies, cooperation, and good 
understanding should increase, and for that reason 
he directed me to visit the Republic of Costa Rica 
and our other sister republics in the region of the 
Caribbean Sea, in order that I might carry to them 
a message of good will from the people and Gov- 
ernment of the United States, and, further, that I 
might make that personal acquaintance with your 
public men and hospitable peoples to the end that 
24 



KNOX. 25 

such direct personal knowledge and understanding 
and appreciation might result in mutual advantage 
and cooperation for the advancement of our com- 
mon interests. 

It was with a feeling of genuine wonder and 
admiration that I arrived at your capital city after 
the marvelous ride from the coast, along the won- 
derful Revantazon, following its tortuous and diffi- 
cult windings through the most beautiful tropical 
foliage until, arriving at the highlands, the verdure 
of the Temperate Zone at once met the eye. The 
ability to make this journey in so much comfort 
was, Mr. President, a suggestion of what the Costa 
Ricans have accomplished along other lines, and 
fully prepared me for the abundant evidences of the 
industry, thrift, tenacity, and culture of your people 
which I met at every hand. 

It is with a feeling of gratified expectancy that 
one finds at every turn expressions of the tradi- 
tional love of your people for education, not only 
in its practical forms, but for the higher arts, nota- 
bly architecture and music, and to see in the happy 
and radiant faces of the children the reflection of 
the beauty of their mothers and sturdy qualities 
of their fathers. 

It is given to few countries to make the just 
boast that within her borders the school-teachers 
outnumber the soldiers and that resting upon her 
bosom in the very center of America is the first 
perfect type of an international court of arbitral 
justice. 



26 COSTA RICA. 

The attitude of the Government of the United 
States toward the peaceful settlement of interna- 
tional disputes, of which this court forms a model, 
has been consistently maintained since the founda- 
tion of our Government, as is evidenced by the 
Treaty of Ghent. The attitude of the Republic of 
Costa Rica has likewise been consistent and is am- 
ply evidenced by the course adopted for the settle- 
ment of the century-old boundary dispute with 
Panama. I repeat, Mr. President, that the people 
of Costa Rica may justly felicitate themselves that 
in their very midst is the home of the Central 
American Court of Justice, the one tribunal before 
which one nation may bring another — yes, before 
which an individual may bring- a nation to deter- 
mine before the bar of impartial justice the differ- 
ences that exist between them. My Government 
and, I am sure, the Government of Mexico feel 
proud of the part played by them in the Central 
American Peace Conference, convoked under their 
auspices, out of which grew this international fo- 
rum, which is the prototype of the court it has long 
been the desire of the United States to see estab- 
lished by the nations of the earth. In this connec- 
tion, Mr. President, let me express the feeling of 
profound satisfaction that the people and Govern- 
ment of the United States entertain, not only be- 
cause of the rapidly increasing prosperity of Costa 
Rica, but because of her love for peace, because of 
the respect she inspires in the family of nations, 
because she has laid the foundations of perpetual 



KNOX. 27 

freedom upon the eternal rock of justice and occu- 
pies an exceptional and enviable position among 
the American republics and to the general distribu- 
tion of property among her people, and because of 
the constantly increasing intimacy and friendliness 
between her people and our own. 

It is but a short time, Mr. President, until at 
Panama a new highway of commerce will be opened 
to the world. That event, so conspicuous and sig- 
nificant, will remove the countries of the Caribbean 
Sea from their comparative isolation and place them 
upon the greatest highway on the globe, a highway 
from the northern to the southern, from the west- 
ern to the eastern world. The republics of this 
hemisphere will be thrown into a new day and a 
new condition. It would be folly to enter that 
new day without a proper conception of its oppor- 
tunities and possibilities for our common good. 
We should go into the new epoch as befits it, with 
new aspirations and enthusiasms and with greater 
promise. The casual relations which once marked 
our intercourse are now happily not casual, but they 
must be closer and more friendly still — so close, 
indeed, that as we labor to better human conditions 
this common end will be a bond of trust and hope. 

I bear you, then, not only a message of good 
will, but one bespeaking a mutual understanding 
and union in aspiration and effort toward further- 
ing the progress of the Western World through 
deeds of reciprocal helpfulness. 



28 COSTA RICA. 

The free and equal republics which have estab- 
lished themselves upon this hemisphere have a sin- 
gular harmony of destiny, and that is to bring their 
common form of government to the highest point 
of efficiency for the maintenance of popular rights. 
The greatest strength of these republics, whose her- 
itage is so wonderful, lies in unity of aim and effort. 

While we w^ill all be more or less, in the future 
as in the past, engrossed in questions affecting our 
internal development and our own acute problems, 
it is wise to seize every opportunity to impress 
upon the world and upon ourselves that ours is a 
Pan-American union of lofty Pan-American public 
opinion, doing justice and exacting justice, disclaim- 
ing ignoble suspicion, and putting to scorn interna- 
tional acts of unworthiness when, unhappily, they 
may be found among us. 

Ladies and gentlemen, I propose the health, the 
happiness, and the prosperity of the President and 
people of Costa Rica. 



speech of Mr. Knox at a hificheon given on board 
the ""Maryland"' at Picntarenas, Costa Rica, 
March ^, igi2. 



Ladies and Gentlemen: 

Of course the thing that we would love the 
most would be to say that now we are welcoming 
you to the shores of our country, as you have wel- 
comed me and my party to yours, but as this seems 
to be a physical impossibility the next best thing is 
to welcome you to the decks of an American ship, 
which, in a sense, is American soil. 

I want to tell you in all sincerity and from the 

bottom of my heart that when from the quarter-deck 

of the Maryland we view the disappearing shores 

of your hospitable land we will not only carry with 

us deep regret at parting, but lasting memories of 

your cordial hospitality and kindness to us while 

we were here, and as a parting toast I propose the 

health, the prosperity, good fortune in all things, 

and the perpetuity of your Republic; the beauty 

and grace of your women, the valor, industry, 

thrift, and tenacity of your men, Costa Rica, and 

her people. 

29 



Ill 



Speeches in Nicaragua 



31 



speech of Mr. Knox at the railroad station at 
Managua, Nicaragua, March 5, igi2.^ 



Mr. Mayor, Ladies, and Gentlemen: 

My especial regret at this moment is that I have 
not an acquaintance with the beautiful language of 
your good people which will enable me to respond 
in fitting terms to your words of welcome. I can 
not take any other meaning from them, however, 
than that you have extended to me a kindly greet- 
ing, and in the name of the people of my country 
and of the President of the United States I sincerely 
thank you. It is not only a privilege to be here, 
but a great satisfaction to stand in this capital city 
and look into the eyes of the people for whom my 
friendship has always been great. I appreciate the 
honor that was done me by the citizens of Nicara- 
gua in sending to the seashore so many of your dis- 
tinguished men and beautiful women to greet us at 
the threshold of your country, and I am sincerely 
thankful to the municipal authorities of the city of 
Managua, as well as the authorities of the Republic, 
not only for myself but for my party, for my peo- 
ple, and for my President for the great cordiality 
you have shown me. 

*The Secretary did not receive a copy of the speech to which this is 
a reply. 

s 105 3 ^^ 



speech of His Excellency Adolf o Diaz, President 
of Nicaragua, ivelcoming Mr. Knox, Managua, 
March 6, igi2. 



[Translation.] 

Honorable Secretary Knox: 

You are in a country where your name has long 
been known, because on a memorable occasion for 
our liberty you linked it with the history of our 
struggles for advancement by an act of justice of 
the American Government, inspired by the senti- 
ment of that great people which abhors tyranny 
not only within its own frontiers, but in every 
place to which it may carry the beneficent influ- 
ence of its policy. 

As an admirer of that policy by reason of its 
evident results in other fortunate Latin countries, 
I live in the firm intention of accepting that friendly 
influence so long as I myself have any influence 
in the destinies of my country, whether as a ruler 
or as a citizen. 

Unfortunate has been the existence of Central 
American democracy. A prolonged and bloody 
struggle has consumed the vigorous life of these 
nations during almost an entire century of sterile 
uprisings. To refer only to my own country; it 
has been a republic for almost a hundred years 
without having known republican methods in all 

34 



DIAZ. 35 

that time, except at brief intervals. Our political 
struggles have unfortunately not been a luminous 
contest of ideas and principles; they have been a 
terrible duel between despotism, on one hand, and, 
on the other, the ill-directed efforts of the people in 
search of happiness never attained — a duel, a hor- 
rible duel, which has at length left the Republic, 
if not dead, at least almost utterly exhausted. 

Horrible disasters have happened among us 
which have been viewed, if not with indifference, 
at least with passive calmness by the rest of the 
civilized world, because in international regulations 
the egotistical doctrine has prevailed that in the 
matter of good government each nation should 
concern itself only with its own people, as if those 
who suffer the oppression of tyranny were not 
human beings, like other unfortunates to whom 
succor is never denied among Christians. This 
doctrine, thanks principally to the United States, 
is disappearing among nations to give place to the 
more generous one of mutual assistance. 

In the light of these principles I entered the 
revolution of Bluefields with firm faith, a faith 
maintained unchanged even amidst the greatest 
vicissitudes of that terrible war, because I knew 
that we were engaged not in one of the many up- 
risings, vain efforts, common in our disorganization, 
without positive results, but in a real revolution, 
an absolute overthrow not only of the despot but 
also of his baneful system, and thereafter a triumph 



36 NICARAGUA. 

of justice and the establishment of order and last- 
ing peace in Nicaragua. 

I knew then, and I believe to-day, notwith- 
standing my transition from a revolutionist to a 
member of the Government, that this happy out- 
come can not be obtained without the assistance 
of your country. We are weak and w^e need your 
strong help for the regeneration of our debilitated 
land. The hand which your Government gener- 
ously and fraternally extends to us I accept without 
reserve or fear, for I know it belongs to a people 
which has made a religion of liberty and, educated 
in and for freedom, loves its independence above 
everything and respects the independence of others. 

In this work for the welfare of Nicaragua, in- 
creasing the hope of its ultimate success, your name 
is pledged. It has been connected, to the joy of 
our people, with two of our principal events: With 
your famous note, in which, as the mouthpiece of 
civilization, you pronounced the doom of tyranny 
before the world, and with the treaty you signed in 
Washington with our Minister Castrillo, the clauses 
of which are a guaranty of peace, the basis of a 
future of prosperity and order, and the confirma- 
tion of which by the American Senate all good 
Nicaraguans are to-day anxiously awaiting in order 
to enter tranquilly upon the enjoyment of their 
assured rights and the anticipation of that future 
of development and wealth. 

The name of your worthy President, William 
H. Taft, and your own name are pronounced by all 



DIAZ. 37 

Nicaraguans, from the statesman to the humblest 
countryman, as though they were names of person- 
ages of our fatherland, due to the fact that every day 
the bonds are becoming closer between your great 
and happy country and my own small country, 
worthy, however, of equal happiness because it con- 
sists of a generous race inhabiting a rich soil. 

This sincere friendship between the powerful 
and the weak is meritorious for both — for the one 
because of its altruism ; for the other because of its 
confidence. Yes, sir, unlimited confidence in the 
proven morality of the American Government, and 
even greater confidence in the people of your great 
nation, who in every circumstance would be the 
first and most earnest defenders of justice for the 
weak, even against their own Government. 

In this new political life of Nicaragua, which, 
scarcely begun, is already showing the effect of 
almost forgotten liberties — in this work of regen- 
eration you have been one of the most active 
agents, bringing to us at this opportune moment of 
our transformation the influence of your power 
without offending us with your strength. For this 
reason you may count upon firm affection in Nica- 
ragua; for this reason you are received like an old 
acquaintance, and I, in the name of the people and 
of the Government of Nicaragua, greet you cor- 
dially, and hope your sojourn may be pleasant in 
this country, where your name signifies an ideal. 



Reply of Mr. Knox. 



Mr. President, Ladies, and Gentlemen: 

On behalf of the Government and people of the 
United States permit me to express my sincere 
appreciation and thanks for your kindly greeting. 
I have come to Nicaragua to express to you the 
keen feeling of neighborly sympathy entertained 
by my Government for the Government and people 
of Nicaragua, and it is indeed a pleasure to meet 
you here and be privileged to speak to you face to 
face. 

Thanks to the frank and most cordial relations 
which happily exist between our respective coun- 
tries our people are rapidly becoming more deeply 
interested in the welfare and development and con- 
sequent prosperity of Nicaragua, and are more than 
ever before manifesting a desire to cultivate even 
closer and more intimate relations. Movements 
toward closer association and truer friendship 
between the peoples of different countries are not 
arbitrarily created by outward efforts; they spring 
from within. Their primary impulse is the grow- 
ing conviction of neighboring countries that the 
development and prosperity of each is in harmony 
with the advancement of the welfare of all. Such 
movements are tremendously facilitated by the 
38 



KNOX. 39 

confidence and friendship that follows acquaintance, 
and that fact is the inspiration of my mission. 

Although the interest of the people of the 
United States in the welfare of your country is 
keen there is not and never has been any desire 
either on the part of the American Government or 
people to mix unduly or unbidden in the internal 
affairs of Nicaragua, but to the request for assist- 
ance in the regeneration of Nicaragua my Gov- 
ernment was happy promptly to respond. 

The political and economic situation that had 
arisen, due to many years of misrule, rendered the 
task of reorganization of your Government exceed- 
ingly difficult, and your leaders, because of the 
frank friendship and good faith of the United States 
toward the Nicaraguan people as a whole, naturally 
turned to the American Government for council 
and assistance in the arduous task before them. 
My Government was glad to send to Managua a 
special commissioner to aid in making a fixed pro- 
gram which the leaders pledged themselves to carry 
out and in which was contemplated loyal coopera- 
tion in the rehabilitation of Nicaragua. The Gov- 
ernment of the United States was glad to suggest, 
upon the invitation of Nicaragua, a competent 
financial adviser who should make a careful study 
of the economic conditions of the country and 
counsel the Government of Nicaragua as to the 
best methods to be pursued in dealing with this 
most difficult and important problem, and also to 
assist you in devising means to be adopted to deal 



40 NICARAGUA. 

with the claims against Nicaragua and to dispose in 
an adequate and just manner of the outstanding 
and legally or economically unsound and ruinous 
concessions. 

The United States was likewise, upon your in- 
vitation, glad to conclude a convention with Nica- 
ragua which will provide a sufficient measure of se- 
curity for a new foreign loan, essential for your 
financial reorganization and internal public im- 
provements. While this convention is still pending 
before the United States Senate it has become nec- 
essary for Nicaragua to make some provision for 
the immediate reformation of the local currency, 
and in order to accomplish this a short-time loan 
has been negotiated and my Government has gladly 
approved the name of an American collector gen- 
eral of customs, who has been appointed by the 
Government of Nicaragua. 

The Nicaraguan people are to be congratulated 
that they have at the head of the nation a man 
quick to realize the necessities of the country and 
of courage sufficient to expeditiously set on foot 
the best and surest means of meeting the -country's 
needs. 

It must here be remembered that the progress 
already made and the continuance of Nicaragua 
along the path to national regeneration depend 
almost entirely upon the preservation of peace 
and contentment in the country, and that the 
surest means of reaching this end is the faithful 



KNOX. ■ 41 

observance of the pledges made by the leaders of 
all parties. 

In the zone of the Caribbean the responsibili- 
ties of the United States are becoming increasingly 
great as the opening of the great waterway which 
is to change the trade routes of the world draws 
nearer and the desire of the United States to see 
order and prosperity becomes even more intensified. 
We are especially interested in the prosperity 
of all the people of Nicaragua. Their prosper- 
ity means contentment and contentment means 
repose. The United States have always cherished 
sentiments of the warmest regard and most cordial 
esteem for the people of Nicaragua, and from the 
very commencement of the independent existence 
of Nicaragua the Government of the United States 
has steadfastly adhered to the traditional policy that 
found expression in the words of President Monroe 
and which indicated a sympathetic interest in see- 
ing this country develop and progress unrestricted 
and unfettered by the interference of foreign na- 
tions. Encouraged by that sympathy Nicaragua 
was able to add to its jurisdiction a strip of terri- 
tory along the Atlantic coast which, with the estab- 
lishment of better means of communication be- 
tween the eastern and western portions of the 
country, will add greatly to the resources and the 
political prestige of the Republic. The people of 
the United States most earnestly desire that Nica- 
ragua should steadily advance to that place in the 
family of nations to which its situation, its wealth. 



42 NICARAGUA. 

and the capacity of its people for self-government 
justly entitle it, and in that spirit of cordial good 
will and warm friendship the Government of the 
United States stands prepared to lend such counsel 
and assistance as may be requested and as may be 
proper in the establishment of a government calcu- 
lated to maintain order, enforce law, discharge its 
international obligations, and promote peace, prog- 
ress, and prosperity. 

I was much impressed, sir, by the lofty stand- 
ard Nicaragua has set for herself, so eloquently ex- 
pressed by you in your gracious words of welcome 
to our minister, whom you have so recently re- 
ceived. When you assured him that Nicaragua 
"had established as a firm base of government the 
respect for human life, the absolute right to prop- 
erty, the suppression of the odious system of forced 
contributions, the complete independence of the 
courts, the freedom of the press, and the observ- 
ance of all individual guaranties", you justly con- 
cluded that these facts were "eloquent testimony of 
the unvarying purpose that animates the Govern- 
ment of Nicaragua to be faithful to its interna- 
tional obligations and to the promises of liberty and 
justice given to its citizens". 

It has probably never happened that neighboring 
countries, which have been more or less afflicted 
with international and internal troubles of frequent 
recurrence arising from similar causes, have adopted 
such radical and effective means for their preven- 
tion as did the five Central American republics in 



KNOX. 43 

the three treaties signed at Washington in 1907 
under the friendly counsel and sympathy of the 
United States and Mexico. 

By the convention for the establishment of a 
Central American Court of Justice they bound 
themselves to create and maintain a permanent tri- 
bunal and to submit to it all controversies and ques- 
tions which may arise among them of whatever 
nature. By the general treaty of peace and amity 
they agreed to the maintenance of peace in their 
mutual relations, and to that end, taking into con- 
sideration the central geographical position of Hon- 
duras, they stipulated for its complete neutrality in 
event of conflict between the other republics, and, 
in order to remove one of the most frequent sources 
of trouble, provision was made calculated to sup- 
press revolutionary activity on the part of the resi- 
dents in adjacent republics. By the addition to 
that convention, and for the purpose of further dis- 
couraging and preventing internal disturbances in 
the five republics, they agreed to refuse to recognize 
revolutionary governments in each other's countries 
until first constitutionally recognized in the country 
where occurring; they agreed not to intervene in 
any country in case of civil war; and they agreed 
to constitutional reform. The mere fact that these 
high resolutions may not have been strictly observed 
in particular cases should by no means discourage 
the signatory parties, the important fact being that 
these five republics have indicated their sincere 
desire for international peace and domestic tran- 



44 NICARAGUA. 

quillity, and have devised complete and adequate 
means to that end, the faithful adherence of which 
will become more and more habitual as the excel- 
lent example of the more advanced republics con- 
tinues to prompt it. 

Mindful of the part the United States took in 
encouraging the making of these treaties and the 
moral obligations arising therefrom it is not the 
intention of our Government or our people to refrain 
from lending every possible proper aid and encour- 
agement to the parties to these conventions to con- 
stantly carry into effect their wise and beneficent 
provisions. 

If this or any other government is to endure in 
this or any other land it is necessary that wisdom, 
vigilance, patience, and loyalty should abide in its 
halls of legislation, its chambers of justice, in the 
centers of executive power, and with the dominating 
mass of its people. 

The establishment and preservation of the insti- 
tutions of free government, here as elsewhere, 
depend not upon those who think first of serving 
themselves and to that end would sacrifice their 
country; not upon those who think only of defeat- 
ing the opposition and to that end would sacrifice 
the world; but upon those who think only of the 
welfare of their country and to that end would sac- 
rifice themselves. 

In Nicaragua there is to-day present the oppor- 
tunity and the acute necessity for a display of the 
very highest and most enduring type of patriotism. 



KNOX. 45 

There is now a call to her true sons to give the best 
that is within them to anxious and concerted effort 
for the public weal, to execute the compromises, 
adjustments, and concessions essential for the gen- 
eral welfare, and, by consistent and loyal adherence 
to the understandings and agreements that have 
been reached for the rehabilitation of their Govern- 
ment, to place their names first upon their country's 
enduring roll of fame. 



speech of the President of the National Cofistitu- 
tional Assembly of Nicaragua, Dr. Ignacio 
Suarez, at a solejnn session of that body held at 
Managua in honor of Mr. Knox, March 6, 
igi2. 

[Translation.] 

Most Excellent Mr. Secretary: 

The National Constitutional Assembly wishes 
to accord you this reception to give you a cordial 
welcome in testimony of the lively sympathy and 
high esteem which the people and Government of 
the United States inspire in them, and you, Mr. 
Secretary, who, in the high character of Secretary 
of State of the great American nation, have con- 
tributed indirectly with your moral influence to the 
pacification of our country. Hence, I have the 
honor to express these sentiments in the name of 
the National Congress, prophesying the most per- 
fect success of the mission which has brought you 
here. 

You are not, therefore, to us merely the diplo- 
matic representative of a powerful nation whom we 
admire and respect and to whom we are bound by 
ties of old and friendly relations, but also a wel- 
come guest, owing to your having given proof that 
you are animated by a lofty spirit of American 
brotherhood. 
46 



SUAREZ. 47 

It can not be denied, however, that your visit, 
which the peoples of America and ourselves espe- 
cially, have been awaiting with suspense, has awak- 
ened fears and misgivings in timid minds, who see 
in it a peril to our autonomy. Undoubtedly it is 
because they are unaware of the many proofs which 
on divers and solemn occasions North American 
statesmen have given officially which eliminate all 
tendency to expansion or to interference in foreign 
dominions which might compromise the latter's 
sovereignty and independence. 

It must be recognized also that a propaganda 
nearly continental in proportions denouncing ex- 
pansionism has been initiated. This propaganda 
first took form in the famous Monroe Doctrine, so 
opportunely formulated, now amplifying and re- 
stricting its terms, or diluting it in a strong solution 
of unbiased criticism in order to arrive at the exact 
conception of its true meaning. 

Those unfounded fears of which I have just 
made mention arise from this. To dissipate them 
it is enough for me to recall some of those proofs, 
unimpeachable through having been confirmed in 
the international practice of the United States. 

The glorious conqueror of Vicksburg, in 1881, 
calmed the restlessness of the Mexicans who at- 
tributed intentions of annexation to his journey, 
assuring them, at a banquet given to him by the 
deputies of Oaxaca, that the people of the United 
States would under no circumstances accept annexa- 



48 NICARAGUA. 

tion, not even if nine-tenths of the people of Mexico 
should ask for it, and he added: 

We do not need new territory; we have yet to develop 
what we have. We wish to see our neighbors prosper and 
become strong enough in order that the projects which 
are formed by other countries in relation to them may in 
no way endanger their safety. 

And later, in 1885, i^^ order to dispel new fears 
in the same Republic, the United States minister, 
Mr. Henry R. Jackson, in a reception given on 
July 4, pronounced these energetic and quieting 
words : 

May the hand be paralyzed that dares to strike out a 
single star of the pleiad of American republics! May the 
stateman perish who pulls out petals or pistils from a sin- 
gle flower! Allow to each nation the full enjoyment of its 
institutions, customs, and local laws. Let it govern itself 
according to its pleasure. If American freedom for all 
nations does not consist in this, then our Constitutions, 
Federal and State, can be naught but lies and our flag a 
farce. 

The Attorney 'General, Mr. Gushing, upon giv- 
ing an opinion requested by the Secretary of State, 
Mr. William L. Marcy, on a claim of Peru against 
the United States, thus expressed himself : 

It seems to me that considerations of expediency con- 
cur with all sound ideas of public law to indicate the 
propriety of a return to more reserve in all this matter, 
as between the Spanish American Republics and the 
United States; that is, to abstain from applying to them 
any rule of public law which we do not admit to have 
applied to us; to do only as we would be done by; and 



SUAREZ. 49 

to consult their well-being, and cultivate their friendship, 
by adhering to the impartial assertion, whether in claim 
or in rejection of claim, of the established rules of the 
international jurisprudence of Christendom. 

Such wise and worthy words even the venerable 
founder of American democracy would not have 
disdained to pronounce. 

I omit other more recent declarations, for they 
are better known, such as those of Secretary of 
State Root on his trip through South America, 
calculated also to communicate to weak nations the 
security of their independence. 

There can be no doubt that justice will triumph 
and that the way will be opened through which 
invigorating and fruitful currents will urge on to 
fields of progress. 

The evolution taking place in private law, influ- 
enced by the principles of true justice which does 
not lose sight of the common destiny of mankind, 
is already more important than international law, 
and from day to day the violence of nation against 
nation becomes rarer where such violence is 
grounded only on the supremacy of strength. 

I have the pleasure here to state that the United 
States has in nearly all cases abided by the principles 
above laid down. In evidence of this are the many 
cases of arbitration with small nations : The Vene- 
zuelan flour claim of 1836, which it dropped 
when convinced that it was in the wrong; the 
abuses of a mixed commission on claims against 
Paraguay, removed in 1862 by this declaration 

s 105 4 



50 NICARAGUA. 

of the President: "The people and Government of 
the United States are too honorable to connive at 
oriental trickery in favor of their citizens to the 
detriment of justice"; to Peru was given entire 
satisfaction in 1852 by the Secretary of State, Mr. 
Everett, "in consequence of unintentional injustice 
done", according to his expression, when the sov- 
ereignty of this Republic in certain guano islands 
which American citizens wished to take possession 
of was put in jeopardy. 

And I could continue with similar quotations. 
I shall not omit the Venezuelan case, owing to the 
special circumstances which attached to it. This 
Republic was condemned to pay by a mixed com- 
mission an indemnity to American citizens in the 
sum of $1,253,310.30. It paid one-half, more or 
less, and it then refused to pay the rest because 
great frauds had been disclosed which placed the 
real amount of the debt at $80,000. The American 
Congress, at the request of the Executive, author- 
ized the use of force for obtaining payment; but 
Venezuela held out in its refusal until President 
Arthur and Secretary Frelinghuysen recognized that 
it was right, and to this effect Congress was in- 
formed, and this high body thereupon unanimously 
resolved that another commission should be ap- 
pointed to revise the first decision. 

I have gone into these details at length to make 
clear the procedure of your powerful country with 
the other weak ones of the continent; and the last 
cited in particular attracts the attention, for it 



SUAREZ. 51 

treats of a decision clothed with ail the force of a 
thing adjudicated opened anew through respect for 
right and equity. 

Hence, all fears and all prejudice ought to be 
rejected in our relations with the United States, it 
being evident that the strongest bulwark of our 
guaranty as a nation, lacking physical strength, 
lies in the force which emanates from right, and 
therefore it resides in your own institutions, in your 
characteristic respect for law, which, as was said 
by a notable writer, is borne of the Anglo-Saxon 
temperament — calm, practical, lover of justice, and 
adverse to all extreme measures. 

Hard is the lot of a weak people, even when 
its friendship with great and strong nations is taken 
into consideration. 

The same august founder of your prosperous 
Union, who saw everything through the crystal of 
his excellent virtues, said, on taking leave of public 
life, in his immortal message addressed to Congress: 

Such an attachment of a small or weak toward a great 
and powerful nation dooms the former to be the satellite 
of the latter. 

Nicaragua, however, which in 1884 was closely 
bound to your country by the Zavala-Frelinghuysen 
treaty, does not fear prejudice or see peril to its 
autonomy, and, strong in its good faith and confi- 
dent in its institutions, founded in and strengthened 
by the same principles of justice which govern your 
wonderful Republic, we open our arms and receive 



52 NICARAGUA. 

you as friends, with signal show of respect and true 
esteem. 

Accept, Mr. Secretary, this manifestation of the 
Assembly, and which, through you, it extends to the 
people and the Government of the United States. 



Reply of Mr. Knox. 



Mr. President: 

I deeply appreciate the honor of being invited 
to appear before this Assembly in solemn session. 
It is another mark of the high consideration I have 
been shown since I entered the Republic. I pro- 
foundly realize the important relations which the 
legislative branch of your Government, like the 
legislative branches of all republics, bears to the 
national system and how important its functions 
are for the welfare of the people. 

The real crisis in the history of any people who 
have by revolution freed themselves from tyranny 
and oppression is when the cohesive force of the 
perils of war have been released and the duty of 
the construction of a new government begins. A 
people may be liberated and their right to self- 
government established by the arbitrament of war; 
but liberty without efficient government is anarchy, 
and a true national government must be con- 
structed. We found this true in the history of the 
United States, and the period that intervened 
between the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at York- 
town and the establishment of the present Govern- 
ment of the United States was one of the most 
critical in its history. It was commonly asserted, 
and even by our most friendly critics, that we were 

53 



54 NICARAGUA. 

incapable of establishing any species of government 
because we were disunited. It was thought that 
suspicion and distrust of the people of the different 
sections of our country would continue until the 
end of time, and that we would be subdivided into 
little commonwealths or communities, according to 
the physical conformation of the land. 

Perhaps without the splendid service which the 
immortal Washington rendered to his country in 
its trying years this dire prediction might have 
proved true, but he roused the people to the appre- 
ciation of the fact that no permanent government 
was possible unless the people themselves would be 
willing, as he expressed it in his farewell letter, "to 
sacrifice, if need be, some of their local interests 
to the common weal; they must discard their local 
prejudices and regard one another as fellow citizens 
of a common country, with interests in the deepest 
and truest sense identical". This communication 
was addressed to the people of thirteen different 
Commonwealths, each of which regarded itself as 
a sovereign power, and each of which was groan- 
ing under the burden it had assumed for the 
common cause now brought, as they believed, to 
a happy issue. They were in no humor for fur- 
ther surrender or sacrifice; they were quarreling 
among themselves over all sorts of real and fancied 
grievances. Our credit was failing at home and 
abroad; our relations with other countries as well 
as between ourselves were unhappy because of 
our lack of unity. As a result our citizens were 



KNOX. 55 

insulted, kidnapped, impressed, and sold into slavery, 
and all sorts of economic vagaries were abroad in 
the land. This pointed to an early condition of 
total wreckage of all that we had gained by our war 
for independence if a better understanding for the 
future was not soon reached. 

Fortunately this opportunity came in the call 
for the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia 
in 1787. Once again duty called Washington from 
the satisfactions of private life to preside over the 
destiny of his countrymen, and upon the very 
threshold of its labors his lofty character and noble 
eloquence inspired the members of the convention 
with a sense of their duties and responsibilities. It 
has been said by one of our great historians* that — 

At the very outset some of the delegates began to 
exhibit symptoms of that peculiar kind of moral cowardice 
which is wont to afflict free governments, and of which 
American history furnishes so many instructive examples. 
It was suggested that palliatives and half measures would 
be far more likely to find favor with the people than any 
thoroughgoing reform, when Washington suddenly in- 
terposed with a brief but immortal speech, which ought to 
be blazoned in letters of gold, and posted on the walls 
of every American assembly that shall meet to nominate 
a candidate, or declare a policy, or pass a law, so long as 
the weakness of human nature shall endure. Rising from 
his President's chair, his tall figure drawn up to its full 
height, he exclaimed, in tones unwontedly solemn, with 
suppressed emotion: "It is too probable that no plan we 
propose will be adopted; perhaps another dreadful con- 
flict is to be sustained. If, to please the people, we offer 

*John Fiske, "The Critical Period of American History, 1783-1789". 



56 NICARAGUA. 

what we ourselves disapprove, how can we afterward 
defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the 
wise and the honest can repair; the event is in the hand 
of God." 

This outburst of noble eloquence carried conviction to 
everyone, and henceforth we do not hear that any attempt 
was avowedly made to avoid the issues as they came up. 
It was a most wholesome tonic. It braced up the con- 
vention to high resolves, and impressed upon all the dele- 
gates that they were in a situation where faltering or 
trifling was both wicked and dangerous. From that 
moment the mood in which they worked caught some- 
thing from the glorious spirit of Washington. 

The result of the labors of this convention was 
the Constitution of the United States; the result 
of its ratification by the States was the birth of a 
nation. The present unity, brotherhood, and inter- 
citizenship of the inhabitants of the formerly dis- 
cordant and jarring States of our Union attest the 
beneficence of the work of those upon whom the 
original responsibility was cast, and you people of 
Nicaragua may be assured of the certainty that 
under Providence great blessings will come to you 
as a result of the heroic fortitude you have dis- 
played in the cause of liberty, if it is followed by 
wise, prompt, and beneficent action for the rehabili- 
tation and reconstruction of the institutions of your 
land. Mere politics, local differences, sectional 
strife, personal ambition, should be set aside, and 
the best thought and the best effort of the country 
given to the consideration and enactment of such 
economic measures as will open to the people of 



KNOX. 57 

Nicaragua a new vista of hope and prosperity. 
This, supplemented by such measures as will make 
permanent and enduring the equality of rights 
which is essential to the maintenance of republican 
institutions, will give Nicaragua her proper place 
among the family of American republics. 

I note, Mr. President, what you have said in re- 
gard to the existence of some apprehension here and 
in other republics of Latin America as to the true 
motives and purposes of the United States toward 
them under the Monroe Doctrine. I beg to assure 
you, and I am sure that what I say meets the 
approval of the people and President of the United 
States, that my Government does not covet an inch 
of territory south of the Rio Grande. The full 
measure and extent of our policy is to assist in 
the maintenance of republican institutions upon 
this hemisphere, and we are anxious that the experi- 
ment of a government of the people, for the people, 
and by the people shall not fail in any republic on 
this continent. We have a well-known policy as 
to causes that might threaten the existence of an 
American republic from beyond the sea. We are 
equally desirous that there shall be no failure to 
maintain a republican form of government from 
forces of disintegration originating froni within ; 
and so far as we may be able we will always be 
found willing to lend such proper assistance as may 
be within our power to preserve the stability of 
our sister American republics. 



speech of the President of the Supreme Court of 
fustue, Dr. Alfonso Solorzano, at a solemn ses- 
sion held by that Tribu7ial i7i honor of Mr. 
Knox on March 6, igi2. 



[Translation.] 

Excellent Sir: 

It is the first time in the annals of the history of 
the Supreme Court of Justice that it has departed 
from its traditions and extended an invitation to 
anyone to honor it with a visit. 

But nothing is more natural than that it should 
be extended to you who come as the representative 
of the great American Nation, which, it is truthfully 
said, has placed law upon the highest pedestal in 
the world. 

We read your history with interest to learn of 
the institutions of a free people; its pages, covered 
with wise lessons, have taught us to love your great 
men of lofty virtue, who, always conscious of their 
duty, had the strength of mind to perform it — those 
men of a glorious past who first planted with firm 
and unfaltering hand the banner of freedom in the 
heart of the American Continent. 

Born, like you, to a life of law, we have strug- 
gled for liberty. Vividly before us is the example 
of your country, which has succeeded in attaining 
58 



SOLORZANO. 59 

the height of power not only through the untiring 
endeavors of its sons to win material progress, but 
also, and especially, through its political institu- 
tions so wisely formulated and even more judicially 
adhered to. 

When your great ancestors founded the Republic 
they embodied in the Constitution the admirable 
principles of liberty. They believed, and rightly, 
that progress and happiness of a people could 
only be brought about by the full exercise of indi- 
vidual activities, and hence they put upon them no 
limitations other than those fixed by God, Himself, 
to prevent annihilation of all in the clash of oppos- 
ing aspirations. 

But they also understood that the wise provi- 
sions of this political organism would be fruitless if 
they did not establish a sovereign and independent 
power, which, removed as far as human weakness 
permits from the strife of parties and free from 
the passions of interest, should become the custo- 
dian of its institutions and safeguard its laws; and 
to the Supreme Court of Justice, which already had 
been intrusted with the noble mission of conserving 
peace, protecting life, property, and honor against 
individual acts, was intrusted this other and higher 
charge — that of maintaining its principles when 
unfortunately they might be trampled upon by 
those intrusted to guard them. 

The institution of the Supreme Court of Justice 
as the custodian of the fundamental law is, to quote 
Root, "the most precious gift that political science 



6o NICARAGUA. 

has given to our country". We, prepared by the 
history of our "mother country", which from the first 
understood that law is in the hands of the govern- 
ing power, were heirs also to this valuable legacy. 
Our court, like yours, without machinery of 
material force, is perhaps the highest moral power 
of the State. It prevents the execution of those 
orders of the other high powers of the States which 
might violate the Constitution; it repairs the wrong, 
punishes the guilty, and, by recent ruling, it even 
decides upon direct appeal the unconstitutionality 
of the laws. It is this power which now demon- 
strates its admiration and good will toward you, and, 
through you, toward your country. We fain would 
believe that, if the assurances of cordiality which 
the political bodies of our country have lavished 
upon you have been agreeable, as the expression of 
sincere feeling, this demonstration, which is ad- 
dressed not to policy but to an eminent jurisconsult, 
not to a great and strong power, but to people great 
in law and liberty, will be not less well received. 



Reply of Mr. Knox, 



Mr. Chief Justice: 

This is indeed a high honor you have conferred 
on me, and I deeply appreciate it, as well as the very 
kind and complimentary words which you have just 
pronounced in referring to my Government and to 
my people. 

During twenty-five years of my life I devoted 
myself to the practice of law in my native State and 
there I learned to respect the courts as a power, exert- 
ing within the orbits of law, justice, and equity great 
influence for all that is good, and in the last analysis 
constituting the strongest safeguard for the people's 
rights. Though I have never occupied a judicial 
position, yet, having served as the chief of the 
Department of Justice in two administrations, the 
contact which my position permitted me to enjoy 
with the members of the bench strengthened my 
respect for the courts and taught me to appreciate 
the sacrifice made by those who, in devoting their 
lives to the administration of justice, deny them- 
selves opportunities for acquiring wealth or fame 
in the more alluring fields of human endeavor. 

Again I beg of you, Mr. Chief Justice, to accept 
my most sincere thanks for the distinguished honor 
you have this day shown to me. 

6i 



speech of His Excellency Diego M. Ckamorro, Min- 
istej" for Foreign Affairs of Nicaragua, at a 
banquet tendered to Mr. Knox at Managua, 
March 6, igi2. 

[Translation.] 

Most Excellent Mr. Minister, Ladies, and 
Gentlemen : 

Animated by sentiments of the most legitimate 
satisfaction, I have the great honor to offer this 
homage of high appreciation and good will to the 
most excellent the Secretary of State of the United 
States of America, Mr. Philander C. Knox. 

The people and Government of Nicaragua, most 
excellent Mr. Secretary, feel a lively pleasure in the 
visit that you make to our country, where your illus- 
trious land is alternately appreciated and admired, 
and with unfeigned rejoicing we celebrate the happy 
occasion of your presence among us, which has per- 
mitted you to know personally how sincere and en- 
thusiastic are the sympathies we cherish for the great 
Republic of the north, sympathies which increase 
every day in the glow of the inalterable confidence 
which your interest for the well-being and prosperity 
of Nicaragua inspires in us, and in the perseverance 
with which we labor in the same work of liberty 
and of justice, which is the aspiration of our people 
and the generous ideal of your nation and of your 
Government. 
62 



CHAMURRO. 63 

Peoples, like individuals, more than by their own 
resources, live by the interests common to other 
peoples, and no nation, without placing in danger 
its well-being and its existence, can draw away from 
that sociological law which compels all individuals 
and all nationalities to live together in a general 
concert which tends to the highest development of 
their forces in the material, the economic, and the 
moral order. 

Profoundly affected by this truth and by the 
exceptional importance which the relations will as- 
sume in the near future, without doubt, between 
the United States and other nations of the world 
and all the countries surrounding the Panama Canal, 
we, in the agreements celebrated with the United 
States, without any reserve or vacillation, have fol- 
lowed the inspirations of a far-sighted and patriotic 
policy that counsels us not to lag behind the other 
nations on the ascending road of progress, civiliza- 
tion, and culture, but to assure, once for all, our 
position among the nations of the world. 

You, most excellent sir, are not a stranger among 
us. Your name is familiar to our people, and every- 
where it is accompanied by the respect and the 
affection with which entire Nicaragua greets you 
and receives you as an old and true friend. Your 
illustrious personality and the eminent representa- 
tive character vested in you give to your pleasant 
visit a significance superabundantly honorable for 
Nicaragua, because you come in the name of a great 
people to whom we are bound not only by the 



64 NICARAGUA. 

material ties of an active commerce ever on the 
increase^ but by the better and indestructible moral 
bonds of the same political ideals, and by your his- 
torical traditions closely connected with all our 
struggles for independence. 

With your beautiful Declaration of July, 1776, 
you awakened in all the people of America the love 
for liberty. Your sympathies accompanied us in 
our strivings for emancipation, and before any other 
country it was your people who recognized us as 
sovereign nations. Your international doctrines 
then gave stability and strength to those conquests 
of right, assuring forever our existence as republics, 
unhampered by foreign interference. We owe to 
you the restoration of our territory, and to-day more 
than ever we place confidence in the friendship and 
solicitude of your people for the maximum develop- 
ment, which all Nicaraguans desire, of republican 
institutions and practices of which your country is, 
par excellence, the highest exponent in the world. 

In the paternal house we learnt from childhood 
to know and admire your great forefathers. The 
lives of Washington, Lincoln, and Franklin were 
heroic legends of the home and their salient and 
stirring deeds were held up before us constantly by 
our elders as the most beautiful examples of virtue 
and patriotism worthy of admiration; and so, used 
to living in communion with your heroes, we never 
have and never will accustom ourselves to regard 
them as strangers, since they are not and can not 
be such for any free man, whatever the place of his 



CHAMORRO. 65 

nationality in the world. If your language be 
unknown to us, the language of liberty and justice, 
which by its example pointed the way to the attain- 
ment of the greatest and most perfect political 
institution that human endeavor has been able to 
bring about, so took possession of our minds that 
it is not surprising that, as men, in contemplating 
the stupendous altitude which your country has 
reached in all the spheres of activity and civiliza- 
tion, we should continue rendering that same heart- 
felt tribute of our admiration to those famous men 
who initiated such work and to the heirs of those 
virtues and warders of such great institutions. 

In witnessing the public demonstrations and 
your reception by the Nicaraguan people in their 
fold, and in considering how the prejudices and 
misunderstandings among the nations of this conti- 
nent are quickly blotted out by the frequent cele- 
bration of our Pan-American Congresses, of the 
lofty policy of which your visit to our countries of 
Central America is one of the most expressive 
signs, we can not fail to recall the notable words 
which one of your most illustrious men, John 
Adams, wrote with prophetic vision to his wife on 
signing your magnificent Declaration of Inde- 
pendence. He said: 

Yesterday, the greatest question was decided, which 
ever was debated in America, and a greater, perhaps, 
never was nor will be decided among men. * * * 
But the day is past. The second of July 1776, will be the 
most memorable epocha in the history of America. I am 
s 105 5 



66 NICARAGUA. 

apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding 
generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to 
be commemorated, as the day of deliverance, by solemn 
acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be sol- 
emnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, 
sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one 
end of this continent to the other, from this time forward, 
forevermore. 

Remembering these beautiful words of him who 
was your second President, the clear-sightedness of 
the statesman is surprising who, from that memo- 
rable date, understood the whole compass of your 
revolution for the entire world, and with the vision 
of his soul assisted, and caused his contemporaries 
to assist, in the contemplation of the colossal devel- 
opment of his country, free, rich, and happy after 
more than an age of existence; who discerned, and 
caused others to discern, the edifying and magnifi- 
cent spectacle of America separated in numerous 
republics, but all united in a single ideal of justice, 
of liberty, and of respect for the independence and 
sovereignty of each one of them. 

Permit me, gentlemen, in the name of the Pres- 
ident of the Republic, to invite you to drink a toast 
to His Excellency the President of the United 
States, William H. Taft; to His Excellency the Sec- 
retary of State, Philander C. Knox; to his worthy 
wife and distinguished ladies who accompany her, 
whose presence grace and honor this occasion; and 
to the North American people, to that great nation, 
the friend of peace, of liberty, and of justice. 



Reply of Mr. Knox, 



Mr. Minister, Ladies, and Gentlemen: 

I am deeply grateful for the evidences of cor- 
diality which the Government has given me, and I 
accept these as a mark of brotherly feeling toward 
the Government and people of the United States. 

To my addresses before the Assembly and at the 
Campo de Marte I have nothing further to add rela- 
tive to the situation of Nicaragua, but I do wish to 
avail myself of the opportunity to repeat that the 
Government of the United States does not propose 
in any way to interfere in the internal affairs of this 
country. 

This country, though small, has territory and 
resources sufficient to support 6,000,000 inhabitants, 
and the Government of the United States will assist 
Nicaragua in order that it may grow in wealth and 
population, thus becoming a strong nation. 

When I promised to go to Granada I fully in- 
tended to make the journey, as it was one of my 
most cherished wishes that I could have the privi- 
lege of visiting that city. The demands upon me 
while I have been in Nicaragua have been so 
numerous that I find myself physically unable to 
undertake a journey that will require me to travel 
so far to-morrow. I wish, through you, to express 

67 



68 NICARAGUA. 

to the good citizens of Granada my very deep regret 
that I am so situated that I can not be the recipient 
of the cordial welcome that I feel certain I should 
receive from them. 



IV 



Speeches in Honduras 



69 



speech of His Excellency Mai^iano Vasquez, Min- 
ister for Foreig7i Affairs of Honduras, at 
a luncheon given to Mr. Knox at Amapala, 
March 8, igi2. 



[Translation.] 

Mr. Secretary: 

The people of Honduras feel a very great satis- 
faction at your arrival in its national territory. 

We, the members of the Government, Delegates 
of the National Congress, and representatives of 
the judiciary, have come to offer you most cordial 
reception and to state to you that the visit that you 
are making to our country gives us pleasure. 

We esteem it an honor to our small Republic 
to have here the illustrious Secretary of State of 
the great Republic of America. 

The American Nation has always attracted the 
attention of the world by the tremendous progress 
it has made in advancing civilization. We have 
learned, from childhood up, to admire it; every 
triumph which it has won in its phenomenal march 
has a grateful echo in our little republics and makes 
us feel proud to be, like it, sons of the New World. 

We have learned likewise to pronounce with 
veneration and affection the names that render illus- 
trious the history of your nation, the model of re- 
publican virtues. 

71 



72 HONDURAS. 

Washington, the glory of America, will always 
be recognized as one of the greatest leaders of the 
nations; his words are maxims of political morality. 
He who said "the best and only road that leads 
surely to honor, glory, and true dignity is justice" 
is, indubitably, not only the father of the American 
people but of all humanity. His wise counsel will 
continue to resound through future ages. 

We honor Franklin, the genius that imprisoned 
the destructive lightning, the apostle who preached 
the gospel of peace to all nations; Lincoln, the 
liberator, and all the founders of America; and we 
admire, too, those who, continuing the great work, 
are likewise benefactors of humanity. 

We honor Elihu Root,who, from the high tribune 
of Rio de Janeiro in the Third American Conference, 
declared, to the glory of the great Republic, the 
universal principle of the equality of the nations, 
when he said : 

We deem the independence and equal rights of the 
smallest and weakest member of the family of nations 
entitled to as much respect as those of the greatest empire. 

We honor Roosevelt, President Taft, and his 
worthy Secretary of State, Mr. Knox, who, in the 
midst of their wise and fruitful labors in their own 
country, began yesterday and will to-morrow ter- 
minate so colossal an undertaking as the Panama 
Canal, which will fill the world with admiration and 
will open new and broader highways for the civili- 
zation and progress of the American Continent. 



VASQUEZ. 73 

Accept, sir, from the Government of Honduras 
expressions of keenest appreciation of the cordiality 
shown by you in coming to our territory accom- 
panied by your distinguished family and prominent 
persons of your country, and permit me, on this 
happy occasion, to extend in the name of the Gov- 
ernment of Honduras most sincere wishes for the 
increasing prosperity of the great Republic and for 
the personal welfare of President Taft and his 
illustrious Secretary of State. 



Reply of Mr. Knox. 



Mr. Minister: 

In the name of my Government and my fellow 
citizens I thank you for your cordial hospitality and 
friendly reception. 

It is with sincere regret, Mr. Minister, that I am 
forced, through circumstances over which neither of 
us has any control, to forego the pleasure of visiting 
the capital city of Honduras, which I had hoped to 
be able to accomplish but which I found to be impos- 
sible within the limited time at my disposal. Much 
as I should have enjoyed the beauties of the journey 
to the capital over the rugged face of nature, it is 
nevertheless a great pleasure to meet you here and 
have the advantage of your personal acquaintance. 

The importance of the geographic position of 
Honduras, which borders on three of the other Re- 
publics of Central America, has long been recog- 
nized, and experience has shown that most of the 
unrest that has disturbed Central America, and par- 
ticularly Honduras, has been due to the fact that 
Honduras lies conveniently in the track of any 
armies of other contending Central American states 
and it has been impossible for Honduras to resist 
their passage without itself becoming engaged in 
the quarrel on one side or the other. So much has 
the Republic of Honduras suffered in this regard 
and so often has the peace of Central America been 

74 



KNOX. 75 

easily disturbed, owing to the exposed position of 
this country, that when the Central American Peace 
Conference met in Washington in 1907, under the 
auspices of the United States and Mexico, an article 
was incorporated in one of the conventions there 
signed whereby all the other powers concerned 
pledged themselves to respect the neutrality of 
Honduras. The importance and wisdom of the 
provision has been fully demonstrated, and an elo- 
quent testimonal as to its practical value is that since 
the adoption of these conventions, although other 
of its provisions may have been disregarded, there 
has been no international war in Central America. 

Probably one of the most important matters to 
be considered by the Honduran Government is how 
to make this guaranty, which is all important to 
the peace of Central America, still more effective and 
permanent. It is manifest that it is only as strong 
as the stability of the country and the good will 
of its neighbors combined, and that the surest means 
of insuring its continued respect and resultant bene- 
fits is to assure the stability of the Government of 
Honduras itself and thereby to permit the develop- 
ment of its wonderful store of natural resources. 

Possessed, as it is, of a fertile soil and healthful 
climate, as well as of probably the best natural har- 
bor between San Diego, California, and Concep- 
cion, Chile, the development of Honduras would 
seem to be a matter which it should require but a 
short time to accomplish. In Honduras, all the 
elements of great national prosperity are but await- 



76 HONDURAS. 

ing development. The great needs of the country, 
so great in natural wealth, are facilities of transpor- 
tation, which will at once stimulate foreign and do- 
mestic commerce, and an economic administration. 

Central American tranquillity and security have 
from the first been matters of the deepest concern 
to the United States, and repose in Honduras, 
which will always be the key to Central American 
peace, has ever awakened the keenest interest among 
Americans. When the transcontinental railroad 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific was first under- 
taken the sovereignty of Honduras over the rail- 
road was guaranteed by the United States, and my 
Government has always stood ready to assist in any 
proper manner the preservation of order and the 
promotion of peace in this country. The Marble- 
head treaty, the convocation of the Central Ameri- 
can Peace Conference in Washington, and the part 
played by my Government in the Peace Conference 
at Puerto Cortes in February, 191 2, are all eloquent 
testimonials of our good will toward Honduras. 

It is the desire of my Government to perpetu- 
ate upon the foundations of closer friendship and 
acquaintance the good will we have received from 
the past, to promote our common interests by de- 
veloping a better mutual understanding, and to 
frown down any and every attempt to disturb by 
calumny and baseless suspicion the peaceful and 
friendly relations between the United States and 
Honduras. 



speech of Mr. Knox at a luncheon given by him on 
board the ''Maryland" at Aniapala, Honduras, 
March g, igi2. 



Ladies and Gentlemen: 

I wish, on my own behalf and on behalf of my 
party, to express our appreciation of the friendli- 
ness and hospitality that we have received since we 
have been here, and this afternoon I want to espe- 
cially acknowledge our appreciation of that test of 
good will which is evidenced by the long journey 
that those among you have made from the capital 
city to the coast under most trying circumstances. 
I do not know of a higher test of friendship than 
the one which you have thus given us. Our 
reception in Honduras has been especially pleasing. 
Indeed, I might almost say that nothing could 
excel the kindliness that has been shown to me 
and to my party since we reached Central America. 
There is one thing that I can imagine might excel 
it, and that is the malice and wickedness with which 
those who desire to prevent closer relations between 
the United States and Central America have, 
through false reports, endeavored to create the 
impression that the Central American people have 
not received this mission with kindliness and with 
sympathy. When I get back to my Government 
my report shall be that up to the time that we have 

77 



78 HONDURAS. 

left Amapala not a single incident has marred the 
pleasure of our visit, not a single thing in the way 
of bounteous and generous hospitality has been 
lacking, and that we shall all feel that this visit has 
been worth much to us and we hope it has been 
worth something to you. As I started out to say, 
I want this afternoon to express my special appre- 
ciation to those who have come from Tegucigalpa 
here to meet us, and I propose their health, their 
long life, their prosperity, and their happiness. 



Reply of His Excellency Mariano Vasquez, Minister 
for Foreign Affairs. 



[Translation.] 

Mr. Secretary : 

With enthusiasm I have transmitted to the 
President of the Republic the expressions of cor- 
diality addressed by you to him and to Honduras. 

The entire country will receive with satisfaction 
your friendly words, which reveal the wise policy of 
the acts of the Government of the United States. 

The convention written on board the Marble- 
head, which put an end to a conflict among the 
States of Central America ; the treaty of Washing- 
ton, which stipulated the neutrahty of Honduras 
and removed the dangers of fresh international dis- 
turbances ; and the Puerto Cortes conferences, which 
extinguished the civil war recently kindled in our 
country — all through the amicable mediation of your 
country — prove that you are interested in our wel- 
fare, which naturally must emanate from peace, and 
that on all occasions you have advised us well. 

At the very moment that you hear the tumult 
of our fruitless strife we hear your voice urging 
us toward concord and peace. 

With such antecedents it is impossible for Hon- 
duras to welcome any malevolent propaganda which 
might disturb the relations it cultivates with the 

79 



8o HONDURAS. 

United States or the gratitude it owes to your 
Government. 

On the contrary, we are endeavoring to make 
those relations even more intimate and to attract 
a useful immigration, which, by establishing business 
interests, will strengthen them day by day. 

Honduras, sir, desires peace, a stable and lasting 
peace, in order to develop by means of salutary 
work all the elements of life which it has in abund- 
ance. Consequently, in order to attain this desired 
end, it must not look to those countries for inspira- 
tions which, more or less, have always lived under 
the scourge of war, but it must take its example 
from your Republic, which is rich, powerful, and 
great, owing to the peace and order so wisely main- 
tained since the first days of its independence. 

I bear special instructions from the President 
of the Republic to express these sentiments of frank 
cordiality and of the mutual interest of our coun- 
tries. And both he and each one of us are deeply 
sorry that you have been unable to observe our 
country at closer range. Our land is essentially 
mineralogical and is likewise capable of growing 
productive plants of every zone; therein are forests 
rich in precious woods, rivers flowing over sands 
of gold. With your sagacious eye you would have 
seen the land where a people now debilitated by 
misfortune will soon be transformed, through the 
efforts of its sons, into a rich and prosperous 
nation by the fruitful agency of toil, and then you 



VASQUEZ. 8 1 

would have been convinced of the sincerity of our 
desire of peace. 

With unfeigned regret we learn the news of 
your proximate departure. So numerous have been 
the demonstrations of cordiality with which you 
have distinguished us, and such the affection you 
have awakened in each one of us, that in pressing 
your hand for the last time we shall truly regret 
the separation. 

We wish you, your family, and party a happy 
voyage, and it is a pleasure for me to assure you 
that we shall ever remember the happy moments 
when we had the satisfaction of having on our shore 
the cultured and distinguished Mrs. Knox and the 
trained diplomat who guides the destinies of the 
great Republic. 

s 105 6 



V 



Speeches in Salvador 



83 



speech of His Excellency Manuel Araujo, Presi- 
dent of Salvador, welcoming Mr. Knox at San 
Salvador, March ii, igi2. 



[Translation.] 

Your Excellency the Secretary of State : 

In the name of the people of Salvador and of 
the Government over which I preside I extend a 
most cordial welcome to your excellency. Your 
presence here, at this time, will establish an epoch 
of note in the history of Central America. You 
bear to us on your visit of courtesy the good will of 
a great nation, one of the most powerful races of 
the world. We acknowledge your visit as an act 
of regard, and I, especially, at this moment, feel the 
spirit of the American, the Latin, and the Indian 
stirring upon my lips to enable me to render a com- 
plete testimony of affection to your great nation, 
your Government, and to your excellency. Your 
country exhibits before the world, as a great and 
sovereign nation, the glowing example of the liberty 
and wisdom of your privileged race, forming an 
attractive and enviable standard for all other peo- 
ples. We, though constituted as small nationalties, 
possess the nobility and loftiness of purpose engen- 
dered by honor and faith in our destinies; and 
your excellency may feel assured that in Salvador, 
as throughout all Central America, there burns 

85 



86 SALVADOR. 

brightly, exceeding brightly, that noble ambition 
which is the objective point of all cultured peoples 
to occupy a prominent position in the concert of 
the civilized and free nations of the globe. Wel- 
come, most honored Mr. Secretary, as also your 
distinguished family and your brilliant suite. It is 
our desire that the time spent by you in this section 
of Central America may be agreeable, and that the 
benefits of this visit may, at no distant day, flower 
into the peace, liberty, and progress of our country's 
ensign. 



Reply of Mr. Knox. 



Excellency: 

I come to your country not in the capacity of a 
diplomatic representative but by the direction of 
the President of the United States as the bearer 
of a message of friendship and good will from the 
American people, and I desire to express to Your 
Excellency my appreciation of the cordial and en- 
thusiastic welcome accorded me by the officials of 
your Government and the people of Salvador. 

It is the earnest desire of the President and 
people of the United States that the mutual rela- 
tions between our two countries should continue to 
become even more intimate and cordial than they 
fortunately are to-day. I earnestly hope that Your 
Excellency and the people of Salvador may con- 
tinue to enjoy that happiness and prosperity which 
Providence up to the present time has so bounte- 
ously accorded you and them. 

87 



speech of His Excellency Francisco Dzcenas, Min- 
ister for Foreign Affairs of Salvador, at a 
banqiiet given in honor of Mr. Knox at the 
National Palace, San Salvador, March ii, igi2. 



[Translation.] 

Gentlemen: 

Invested with the high character of Secretary of 
State of the Government of the United States of 
North America, the eminent jurisconsult and states- 
man His Excellency Philander C. Knox is now 
visiting us, the bearer of the messages of friendship 
and sympathy which the powerful Government of 
the White House sends us through the medium 
of its most distinguished representative. 

A cause of veritable satisfaction is the visit of 
him who comes preceded by so conspicuous re- 
noun, for it involves the generous and noble idea 
that new bonds of friendship well understood must 
continue to bind these Governments closer together 
and because this is a happy occasion to evidence to 
our illustrious guest the pacific and progressive evo- 
lution which is going on in Salvador, thanks to the 
highly patriotic spirit of the Government presided 
over by Dr. Araujo and to the wisdom and high 
ideals of the Salvadoran nation, which in its inter- 
nal political construction embraces lofty principles 
of liberty and order, and of peace and intimate 



DUENAS. 89 

communion with the sister nations of the Isth- 
mus, under the symbolic aegis of its democratic 
institutions. 

Salvador, like all the countries of Central 
America, has a great example to imitate in the 
American people, both for their untiring spirit of 
advancement in all spheres of human life, and for 
their constant and gigantic industry, which has placed 
them on the pinnacle of greatness; or, rather, for 
their eminently republican doctrines, which have 
been sustained and vouched for by characters of 
the type of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and 
Lincoln, who are the stars that shine by the side of 
others in the political sky of that marvelous center 
of modern civilization. Salvador, in a salutary com- 
munication of ideas, will have much to avail itself 
of and learn from the people who disseminate 
civilization by the currents of their material and 
intellectual culture, who owe their immense evolu- 
tion to the well advanced and admirably defined 
progress of liberty and law ; like a compass which 
marks a changeless route for the peoples who follow 
fruitful ideals in the realization of their immortal 
destinies in the immense trajectory of the centuries. 

The Government of Salvador expects, as a 
pleasing reality, that the visit with which His 
Excellency Mr. Knox honors us so exceedingly to- 
day will have beneficial and practical results for the 
rapprochement and concord of both peoples and 
Governments, which will open a new era in inter- 
national friendship, as his courteous visit is in the 



90 SALVADOR. 

nature of a frank refutation of the unfounded 
prejudices of those who have not had the fortunate 
opportunity, as we have, of hearing and admiring 
the most noble ideas of peace and friendship which 
he presents to us, ideas of which His Excellency the 
North American Secretary of State is the distin- 
guished bearer, coming, with his words of fraternity 
and his honoring presence, on a mission of courtesy, 
bearing in one hand the olive branch of peace 
and in the other the heraldic emblem of the 
noble and just friendship of the American Gov- 
ernment and people, who do us this high honor of 
sending us fraternal messages through the medium 
of their highest representative. 

Let us drink, gentlemen, to the glories of the 
American people; to His Excellency President 
Taft; to the most worthy Secretary of State, Mr. 
Knox; to his most distinguished lady and brilliant 
suite — and on raising our glasses in their praise let 
us raise also our hearts, which burn with the sacred 
flame of pure patriotism, thus responding with frank 
cordiality to the homage which His Excellency the 
Secretary of State of the great Republic pays us 
by his visit. 



Reply of Mr. K-hox. 



Mr. President, Ladies, and Gentlemen: 

It is with the feeling of sincere gratitude that I 
desire, on my own behalf and on the part of the 
people and Government of the United States, to 
express thanks for the courteous and cordial hospi- 
tality you have so generously lavished upon me and 
upon my family. 

It is indeed a pleasure for me, Mr. President, 
to come from my countrymen as the bearer of a 
message of their good will and friendship to the 
people of Salvador. 

Although the smallest of all the American re- 
publics, Salvador has much of which it may justly 
feel proud. Early among the Central American 
republics to proclaim its independence and to 
embark in the struggle for national emancipation, 
Salvador has always given to the world a whole- 
some example as a peace-loving and industrious 
people. With its dense population and small area 
its people have found it advantageous and even 
necessary to seek new fields of occupation and are 
gradually spreading into the neighboring republics, 
there to engage in the pursuit of agriculture, and 
lands theretofore unproductive promptly respond 
to the sturdy and capable hand of the enterprising 
Salvadoran who has gone peacefully to promote 
their industrial conquest. 

91 



92 SALVADOR. 

Salvador is the only sovereign nation of the 
Northern Continent of the Western Hemisphere 
which does not border on both oceans, and the 
opening of the Panama Canal will shorten by some 
10,000 miles the journey by water between Acajutla 
and New York, which should naturally be one of 
the chief markets for Salvadoran products. The 
United States is not only the greatest producing 
nation but likewise is the greatest consuming nation 
of the world, and as soon as the products of Central 
America, by being popularized in the United States, 
become sufficiently known, and the facilities for 
transporting them thither are made adequate, the 
trade with our Caribbean neighbors will grow and 
develop to an enormous extent. 

The people of the United States have been too 
ignorant of our southern neighbors, their vast, 
undeveloped resources, and the measures they have 
taken to open themselves to the world. 

If we are to enjoy with them the satisfactions of 
international friendship, the advantages of interna- 
tional trade, and the blessings of peace we must 
give more consideration to the means by which 
these advantages are brought about. Friendship 
and peace are indeed the common, if not inevitable, 
consequences of commercial intercourse and result 
from reciprocal dependence of countries upon each 
other's products, sympathies, and assistance. 

I have heretofore elsewhere in my journey 
spoken of the possibilities of greater reciprocal 
helpfulness between the United States and the 



KNOX. 93 

other American republics. This might take the 
form, in part, of more generous measures of com- 
mercial reciprocity between them. This, it seems, 
would be a natural expression of their mutual inter- 
dependence. In speaking, some two years ago, of 
the spirit and purpose of American diplomacy I 
then expressed the hope that the commerce be- 
tween the United States and its southern neigh- 
bors, which makes so powerfully for friendship, 
might be adjusted on a more reciprocal basis. 

The total annual trade of the Central American 
states, not including Panama, with the United 
States now amounts to something like $22,500,000. 
An idea as to what extent this commerce is capable 
of development and expansion may be obtained by 
recalling for a moment what has taken place with 
regard to the commerce of Mexico, whose close 
relations with the United States have so materially 
contributed to the rapid development of an enor- 
mous volume of trade. 

Picture, then, the possibilities of these Central 
American republics and pause for a moment to 
consider that Salvador, in proportion to its area, 
produces more by far than any of its neighbors, 
and some faint idea may then be obtained of the 
magic to be worked by the closer intercourse 
between them and the United States. 

By far the most active sphere of American 
diplomacy to-day is that of our relations with the 
twenty other republics of the Western Hemisphere. 
Most of these republics are passing through an 



94 SALVADOR. 

evolution similar to our own — that of the peopling 
and developing of vast areas and the attempt to 
perfect republican government under similar insti- 
tutions. Now that so many of the republics to 
the south of us have achieved government as stable, 
as enlightened, and as responsible as our own, it 
becomes more and more incumbent upon the citi- 
zens of the United States to know and appreciate 
them. 

Nothing could have gratified me more than the 
sentiment the Minister for Foreign Affairs has 
just expressed when he said : The Government of 
Salvador expects, as a pleasing reality, that my visit 
to-day will have beneficial and practical results for 
the rapprochement and concord of both peoples and 
Governments, which will open a new era in inter- 
national friendship and is in the nature of a frank 
refutation of unfounded prejudices. It is, indeed, 
the supreme purpose of my visit to show that 
upon our part there is no justification or substantial 
reason for prejudice or misunderstanding between 
the people of the United States and the people of 
Central America. What we both sorely need is 
that the truth about Central America and Central 
Americans and of their high civilization and lofty 
purpose and graceful and dignified hospitality should 
reach the United States through unpolluted sources 
and that the truth as to the motives and friendliness 
of the Government of the United States should 
reach you without wicked perversion. Then, in- 
deed, would our countries and our peoples be 



KNOX. 95 

unhampered in our advancement in the paths of 
rectitude and trustful confidence to higher levels 
of welfare and beneficial association. By such 
advances the stature of equality tends gradually to 
become as real as the equality of sovereignty and to 
reach the high level of stability, justice, and modera- 
tion and mutual responsibility which now happily 
characterize the relations between Salvador and the 
United States. 

With its beautiful and health-giving mountain 
ranges, fertile and productive valleys, dense and 
labor-loving population dedicated to peaceful pur- 
suits, Salvador presents, Mr. President, a spectacle 
which irresistibly merits the admiration of every 
foreigner whose good fortune it may be to touch 
these shores and justifiably inspires with pride the 
heart of every true son of Salvador. 



VI 



Speeches in Guatemala 



s 105 7 97 



speech of Mr. Knox upon his reception by the 
President of Guatemala, March 14, 1912. 



Mr. President : 

I received on the quarter-deck of the Maryland 
this morning the courteous message of welcome 
which you sent to me by the distinguished gentle- 
men whom I had then the honor to meet. From 
that moment to the present nothing but expressions 
and evidences of the most cordial and general hos- 
pitality have met my ear and my eye upon every 
side. I construe this to indicate, Mr. President, 
that you and your Government and your people 
accept in its true meaning the purpose of the Presi- 
dent and people of the United States in sending 
me to your country as a messenger of friendliness 
and good will. The intimate relations and friend- 
ship that have heretofore happily existed between 
our two countries must necessarily grow closer and 
stronger as Pan-American civilization develops, and 
they will be much accelerated by the completion of 
the great commercial highway at Panama, which 
will in a peculiar sense draw the republics of this 
hemisphere closer together. I beg you to accept 
my thanks, the thanks of my party, and, through 
us, of the people and President of the United States 
for this dignified and courteous reception, and to 
assure you that I am encouraged to believe that our 

99 



lOO GUATEMALA. 



short Stay among you will be most pleasant and 
profitable to us, and, I trust, likewise conducive to 
the closer union and better understanding between 
the peoples of the two Republics, 



Reply of the President of Guatemala. 



[Translation.] 



Mr. Secretary of State: 

The cordial words I have just heard from your 
excellency's lips fill me with the liveliest satisfac- 
tion, since they express your appreciation of the 
sincere demonstrations of good will and affection 
which my Government, in the name of the people 
of Guatemala, has offered to you upon your 
arrival in this country, which is enjoying in these 
moments the great honor of being visited by the 
representative of a nation with which my country 
happily cultivates such good and friendly relations. 

As the cradle and champion of American free- 
dom, as the flowing fount of human progress and 
the potent arm of labor, the American Union 
merits the respect and esteem of every nation and 
the affection of those who can interpret the senti- 
ments with which its statesmen and thinkers are 
inspired. From day to day it unfailingly makes 
new conquests in every branch of human activity. 
Its influence is bringing about closer relations 
between the nations of the continent, and the per- 
fect harmony which has always characterized its 
relations with Guatemala justifies the enthusiasm 
with which the Government of this Republic wel- 



I02 GUATEMALA. 

comes your excellency as a messenger of concord 
and affection from the Government of the United 
States to the nations surrounding the Panama 
Canal, which, upon the completion of this gigantic 
work, will be more intimately linked with the 
great Republic of the north by new ties of com- 
merce and culture. 

In wishing your excellency and the distin- 
guished persons who accompany you on your visit 
the most pleasant stay among us, I beg that you 
please give to His Excellency the President of the 
United States the thanks of the people and the 
Government of Guatemala for the honor conferred 
upon them by the visit of His Excellency the Sec- 
retary of State of that nation, and present to him 
my wishes for his personal happiness and the wel- 
fare and prosperity of the American people. 



speech of His Excellency Luis Toledo Herrarte, 
Minister for Foreign Affairs of Guatemala, 
at a banquet given in honor of Mr. Knox at 
Guatemala City, March /^, igi2. 



[Translation.] 

Gentlemen : 

The just rejoicing of the people and the Gov- 
ernment of Guatemala in welcoming to their midst 
His Excellency the Secretary of State of the United 
States is but the natural consequence of the broth- 
erly love inspired by the powerful Republic of the 
north which for more than a century has been the 
paladin of American freedom, and constitutes a tes- 
timony of the great value we attach to the visit of 
so eminent a continental personality. Under such 
happy circumstances Guatemala can not forget the 
aid which her nascent sovereignty encountered a 
hundred years ago in the United States, nor the 
good and loyal friendship she has fostered for it 
during all her independent life and which is so 
brilliantly confirmed on the present occasion. 

The American Union has won for itself the 
esteem and admiration of all the civilized world for 
its progress, which, marked with letters of gold in 
the world's history, demonstrates clearly the possi- 
bilities of the combination of liberty and labor. It 
is an exemplar in modern ages to the younger 

103 



I04 GUATEMALA. 

nations and worthy of study by even the older coun- 
tries, which in things politic, as shown in the 
French Revolution, can adopt the principles of the 
assembly of Philadelphia and in industry, com- 
merce, and science apply to their respective needs 
the product of the marvelous progress realized by 
this wonderful country in every branch of human 
activity. 

A Cyclopean work, as though the manifold ones 
already accomplished were not enough, will soon 
proclaim, with the opening of the Panama Canal, 
the greatness and the power of American genius. 
Thanks to the efforts of man, the obstacle placed 
by nature between the two great seas of the world 
will be demolished for the benefit of the peoples of 
both hemispheres; and following this stupendous 
conquest of labor the activities of the universe will 
revolve as though around the axis and center of 
the globe, and the nations on each side will see the 
rapid development of their resources and of the 
numberless elements of life which nature so prodi- 
gally has lavished upon them. 

In this proximate evolution a special place be- 
longs to Guatemala, included, as it is, in the con- 
tinental zone, where the influence of the Panama 
Canal will most be felt, and thus once more will 
American initiative and effort be the promoters of 
the growth of the industry and commerce of our 
RepubUc. 

The trade relations of Guatemala with the 
United States have grown to such proportions, 



HERRARTE. IO5 

with the facilities offered by railroads and steamship 
lines, that during the last few years there is no nation 
with which our country has maintained more active 
commerce or a more valuable interchange of the 
products of the soil and industry. 

The interest of American merchants and manu- 
facturers in our Republic becomes keener every 
day, finding new outlets and new practical mani- 
festations, thus giving rise to the most intimate 
and perfect relationship, which in this way effec- 
tively makes for a more binding intimacy, which 
both countries by mutual effort wish to bring about, 
since they happily are united by identic sentiments 
of cordiality and good understanding. 

Men of peace and good will direct the Govern- 
ments of the nations whose flags, now intertwined, 
symbolize their amicable intercourse, and a mes- 
senger of peace and cordial feeling is the illustrious 
statesman who honors us with his presence in this 
country, and whom the Government of Guatemala 
receives and welcomes with the heartiness and 
sympathy which is due the free American people 
and to the Government which so skillfully guides 
its destinies. 

Gentlemen, while offering this homage in the 
name of the Government of the Republic to His 
Excellency the Secretary of State of the United 
States and the distinguished persons of his party 
who accompany him, I ask you to drink with me 
to the uninterrupted greatness of the United States, 
to the personal happiness of its worthy President, 



I06 GUATEMALA. 

and to the welfare of its eminent representative, 
who has come to make so eloquent a public demon- 
stration of the friendship of the American people 
and Government for the people and Government of 
Guatemala. 



Reply of Mr, Knox. 



Mr. President and Mr. Minister: 

You may have thought it strange that, after 
the courteous toast of the Minister for Foreign 
Affairs, I did not rise during the playing of your 
national air. I wanted to arise alone and thus 
distinctively and by word of mouth to pay my 
respects to the beautiful strains of your noble 
national hymn. One can not travel long in this 
genial clime without exhausting his vocabulary of 
grateful expressions and thanks. I have much to 
be thankful for, much to be grateful for, since I 
came to Central America. From Panama, the most 
southern of the Isthmian republics, through Costa 
Rica, Nicaragua, at Honduras, Salvador, and finally 
here, where I am to say good-by in this beautiful 
country of Guatemala, I have received nothing but 
sympathetic kindness; and perhaps, Mr. Minister, 
one of the things I should be most thankful for is 
that when I was landed in your beautiful country 
in a basket in a not particularly dignified manner, 
when my legs were reaching for something firm 
upon which T might rest, and I was embarrassed by 
my own awkwardness, my eyes lighted upon your 
friendly countenance and that of your charming wife, 
whose acquaintance I had enjoyed in Washington, 
and I at once felt quite at home. My journey to 

107 



I08 GUATEMALA. 

this city to-day has been one of continuous delight. 
Your country surprises me with its beauty and its 
friendliness. The hospitality of your people cheered 
me. I was a stranger in a strange land, and noth- 
ing to a stranger in a strange land is so encouraging 
as welcome smiles from those who meet you along 
the highway. Not only did the adult population 
of your country greet us cordially, but what touched 
me most was the little children in their tidy cos- 
tumes, whose countenances beamed with a genuine 
welcome, for there is no feigned hospitality in the 
countenance of the children; and here, Mr. Presi- 
dent and Mr. Minister, permit me to say that in 
the education of your children you are laying an 
unperishable foundation for institutions of liberty. 
You are building for Guatemala a foundation upon 
which tyranny and oppression and injustice can 
never rest. 

Mr. Minister, you spoke of the Convention at 
Philadelphia, referring, of course, to the Constitu- 
tional Convention, which constructed that great 
piece of statesmanship, the Constitution of the 
United States, which any American can say proudly 
and not immodestly is probably the greatest 
political instrument that has ever been constructed 
by man. The authors of our Constitution were 
not solving the problems of North America alone ; 
they were solving the problems of the Western 
Hemisphere. To-day nearly one hundred and three 
score millions of people residing upon the Western 
Hemisphere (and that represents 90 per cent of 



KNOX. 109 

its entire population) are engaged in trying to 
perfect the problem of popular government, and 
the men who worked out the first Constitution 
that has withstood the shocks of almost one hun- 
dred and twenty-five years were not only working 
out our problem, but they were working out yours. 
It was a great thing for the world that for fifty 
years prior to the Convention in Philadelphia, in 
the colonies of North America, the best talent 
of that day was given to the study of the princi- 
ples of government. The works of the great 
writers upon pohtical science of that epoch had 
been closely studied for fifty years prior to the 
American Revolution with a diligence and purpose 
unparalleled in any other country or at any other 
time. To illustrate: It has been said on the best 
authority that important political writings found a 
larger sale and closer perusal in the colonies of 
North America than they found in any part of 
Europe. You of Latin America have received, and 
you will continue to receive, the benefits of those 
studies and our experiment. You were not long 
behind us in demanding self-government, and when 
the time came when you determined to strike for 
freedom and to follow the example of your north- 
ern brothers we were instantaneous in our sympa- 
thetic recognition of your claims. We sustained 
you by recognition when the great powers of the 
world looked askance upon the American system 
of government, whose merits they now so frankly 
concede. We stood by you in your infancy; we 



no GUATEMALA. 

have endeavored to encourage you in your rapidly 
maturing growth; and I am here in your country 
to-night to say to you, not only upon my own 
responsibility but speaking for the President of the 
United States and for the people of the United 
States, that we have but one thought for all of the 
sister republics of America, and that is that we want 
you to prosper, we want you to grow, we want you 
to be stronger, we want you to be always peaceful. 
That is the message that I bear to Guatemala 
to-night; that is the sentiment which is indorsed 
by the best elements of my country ; and I want to 
assure the people of Guatemala, and I want to 
assure you, Mr. President, that in your efforts for 
your people, in your sincere endeavors to develop 
your country, in your desire to expand your friend- 
ship and to form closer and more binding ties with 
other nations of the world, Guatemala has the 
sympathy, as it will always have, where possible, 
the cooperation, of the United States. 



speech of Seizor Don Arhiro Ubico, President of the 
Legislative Assembly, to Mr. Knox on his recep- 
tion by that body at Gttatemala City, March 75, 
igi2. 

[Translation.] 

Honorable Mr. Secretary: 

It is for me a great honor and a great pleasure 
to present, in the name of the Legislative Assem- 
bly of the Republic, our most cordial salutation 
to His Excellency the Secretary of State of the 
United States of America and welcome him to the 
midst of this representative body of the nation, 
thanking him at the same time for the courteous 
deference with which he has accepted the distinc- 
tion accorded in his honor, the only one of the 
kind in the annals of our parliamentary history, and 
which is due not only to the high personal endow- 
ments of so honorable a guest, but also because of 
his labors in favor of all America, and because he 
is now representing in this country the American 
people, who have given us proof of their frank and 
loyal friendship, and the Government of that illus- 
trious nation, which has always treated us with the 
most intense and fraternal interest. 

As nature has placed the Republic of the United 
States at the head of the continent, so the intelli- 
gence of its sons and their constant endeavor have 



I I 2 GUATEMALA. 

placed it at the head of the civilization of America, 
and, ipso facto, it is morally bound before the 
world to secure the peace, the union, and concord 
of all the American nations as a fundamental basis 
for the development of their culture and their 
prosperity and as an indispensable preparation to 
carrying out satisfactorily the high ends and impor- 
tant destinies which the future holds in store for 
them. 

Some years ago prominent men of America, 
inspired with the ideals of Monroe, strengthened 
still more the basis of an essentially Pan-American 
policy ; and to-day we see this policy converted into 
a reality and raised to the category of a truly official 
institution, which has already given excellent re- 
sults in the economic order of Latin America. 

Moreover, a stupendous event of an interest 
absolutely universal, soon to occur — the interoceanic 
canal across the Isthmus — would in itself justify, 
without regard to the wonderful works of civiliza- 
tion the world already owes to the United States, 
special manifestations of the good will and the 
gratitude of the nations of the Caribbean Sea, which 
are so especially benefited by that gigantic work. 

From this is to be deduced that, although sepa- 
rated from the United States by ethnological in- 
fluences, that country is beloved and respected by 
us, and our geographical position in the center of 
the Western Hemisphere binds us by ties that 
are strong and firm and of great practical impor- 
tance in the strenuous life of modern intercourse; 



UBICO. 113 

and well-understood patriotism advises us, therefore, 
that, without forgetting our firm friendship for other 
nations, we should nevertheless always maintain 
with the United States a policy of preferential and 
especial harmony, good understanding, and intimate 
cordiality, founded, quite naturally, on reciprocal 
justice and loyal frankness; and I ask your excel- 
lency, in the name of the people of this Republic, 
please so to inform the Government and people of 
North America, and that you also deign to receive 
the sincere wishes we extend for their welfare and 
for the personal happiness of your excellency. 

s 105 8 



Reply of Mr. Knox. 



Permit me, Mr. President, to acknowledge and 
to thank you for the unprecedented honor the Na- 
tional Assembly of Guatemala has accorded me in 
receiving me in its midst to-day, thereby furnishing 
an additional evidence of the high regard in which 
the people and Government of Guatemala hold my 
country and its people. 

Your felicitous reference to the great doctrine 
announced by President Monroe nearly a hundred 
years ago, which has since that time been solicit- 
ously, scrupulously, and unswervingly adhered to by 
the Government of the United States, has been a 
source of great satisfaction to me, and leads me, on 
passing through the last Central American Repub- 
lic, to reiterate what I said on landing at Panama, 
and that is that "in my judgment the Monroe Doc- 
trine will reach the acme of its beneficence when it 
is regarded by the people of the United States as 
a reason why we should constantly respond to the 
needs of those of our Latin-American neighbors 
who may find necessity for our assistance". 

Guatemala is to be highly congratulated because 
of her appreciation of the fundamental fact that in 
many things the highest interests of the State can 
be advanced by friendly coordination with other 

"4 



KNOX. 115 

sovereign states in relation to matters of interna- 
tional common concern. Guatemala's friendly par- 
ticipation in the centennial celebration of her 
neighboring republics and highly valuable partici- 
pation in the conferences and congresses dealing 
with matters affecting Pan-American interests and 
her prompt ratification of the conventions pro- 
viding for the unification of currency, weights, and 
measures, and the improvement of the consular 
service of Central America, are evidences of high 
international purposes and show an appreciative 
realization of the fact that intelligent international 
cooperation tends to advance the brotherhood of 
nations. This has been one of the high purposes 
and most consistent policies of the United States, 
and we have endeavored in such matters to act in 
concert with the other powers and to recognize the 
same high duty. Not only does such international 
cooperation advance civilization and improve the 
relations between States, but, as I have heretofore 
ventured to observe, will hasten the time, which I 
sincerely believe the future holds in store, when 
war shall cease ; when the nations of the world shall 
realize a federation as real and vital as that now 
subsisting between the component parts of a single 
state; when the deliberate international conjunc- 
tion of the strong shall universally help the weak ; 
and when the corporate righteousness of the world 
shall destroy the habitations of injustice still linger- 
ing in the dark places of the earth. 



[l6 GUATEMALA. 

Those ends so much to be desired, and so benefi- 
cial to humanity, are accelerated by the recognition 
of national interdependence and such international 
coefficiency as the statesmen of your country have 
encouraged in the matters to which I have alluded. 



Speech of Senor Licenciado Don Manuel Cabral, 
Dean of the University of Guatemala, when con- 
ferring a degree upon Mr. Knox, March i^, 
igi2. 

[Translation.] 

Your Excellency: 

The significant fact of having among its mem- 
bers the most eminent personalities in the divers 
branches of human wisdom has ever been an honor 
and a glory to scientific and literary institutions, 
and because of this the most learned universities of 
Europe and America have been proud to have in- 
scribed in their registers the most illustrious of the 
wise men of the world. This is a pride all the 
more legitimate, inasmuch as science and letters do 
not recognize frontiers and are the bonds which 
unite in fraternal intellectuality the minds which, 
by their culture, nobly represent their respective 
countries. 

To-day one of the most notable figures of the 
great American Nation arrives upon Guatemalan 
soil, and this institution of learning, heir of our 
ancient and glorious university, the true alma mater 
of Central America, feels immense satisfaction and 
considers the inscription of the enlightened name 
of your excellency in the catalogue of the persons 
already there an event of inestimable value, and I 

117 



Il8 GUATEMALA. 

have the honor to clothe you with the highest of 
our academic titles, with the grade of Doctor of 
Laws of the Facultad de Guatemala. At the same 
time this center of science wishes to tender you its 
homage of sympathy, respect, and admiration for 
the great qualities which adorn you, and which 
make you one of the most distinguished citizens of 
the most populous of democracies and an illustrious 
lawyer who, at home and abroad, adds so much 
brilliancy to the American forum. 

Guatemala and the United States, your excel- 
lency, have always conserved the most perfect 
friendship. Never has even the lightest cloud 
arisen to darken the clear horizon of our countries, 
and these relations of cordial amity have been 
strengthened of late, thanks to the frequency of 
our intercourse, to the better understanding of our 
peoples, to greater mutual intimacy owing to their 
common ideas and aspirations, to the daily increas- 
ing commerce, and to the wisdom and patriotism 
of our respective Governments, who, by the recti- 
tude of their acts and the faithful performance of 
their international duties, have succeeded in main- 
taining between the two peoples an unbroken 
peace, which is the fountain of all happiness and 
all progress. 

The Facultad de Derecho y Notariado, an im- 
portant organism of the State, charged with arous- 
ing and fomenting among its citizens the love of 
institutions and of the study of law, which is the 
principal base of national felicity, is not, nor can it 



CABRAL. 119 

be, unconscious of this good understanding, and 
now that one of the most illustrious citizens of the 
great land of Washington and Lincoln honors our 
country with his visit it takes the keenest pleasure 
in proffering him this humble evidence of its affec- 
tion and its respectful appreciation. 

May your excellency deign to favor it with your 
acceptance as a souvenir of your visit to Guatemala. 
We, in our turn, shall ever guard your name with 
respectful affection among the members of our pro- 
fession, and the day in which you honored us by 
permitting us to inscribe your name prominently in 
our register will be an imperishable memory. 



Reply of Mr. Knox. 



Gentlemen of the Faculty : 

The unprecedented act of this ancient seat of 
learning in conferring upon me the honorary degree 
of Doctor of Laws, with notarial powers, is an honor 
of which I am indeed proud. If, as I understand 
my informants, at no time and to no one has the 
university extended so marked an evidence of its 
good will, it is a distinction of such an unique 
character that while I feel unworthy of receiv- 
ing it I am sure I shall always bear it in graceful 
remembrance. 

The law was my first love, and, although she has 
always been termed a "jealous mistress", yet, after 
a quarter century of devotion, I was lured away by 
the blandishments of political life, but I am not 
without hope that time holds for me the good for- 
tune of a return to the profession. 

Let me again express to you, gentlemen of the 
Faculty of the National University of Guatemala, 
my gratitude and my thanks. 



speech of His Excellency Estrada Cabrera, Presi- 
dent of Guatemala, at a banquet given by him 
to Mr. Knox, March i6, igi2. 



[From Diario de Centre American of March 19, 1912. — Translation.] 

It was indeed a happy thought of His Excel- 
lency the President of the United States of America 
to intrust to his worthy Secretary of State the 
mission of frank and loyal friendship which confers 
upon us, in addition to the honor of having him 
among us, the truly singular pleasure and satisfac- 
tion derived from the fact that one of the most 
eminent citizens of the New World bears to Guate- 
mala a message of fraternity and good will from 
the American people. 

The relations of intimate sympathy and mutual 
attraction which have always been carefully culti- 
vated by both peoples and Governments tend each 
day to produce most flattering results through a 
reciprocal understanding in official matters, through 
the better acquaintance of their respective citizens 
with each other, and through the development of 
commerce, which not only consists in an interchange 
of products of the soil and industry but which also 
disseminates ideas of civilization and progress. 

I value and take pleasure in the presence of His 
Excellency Mr. Knox in this country to the fullest 



122 GUATEMALA. 

extent and he can not do otherwise than inspire my 
utmost appreciation of it. It constitutes a pledge 
of greater intimacy — which has always been my 
prayer, and I am happy to see it realized — between 
Guatemala and the United States, as the immediate 
result of geographic situation, of historical condi- 
tions, and of hopes for the future, which, combined, 
constitute a collection of facts and principles which 
controls the evolution of the twenty-one sister 
republics of the Western Hemisphere. 

While experiencing the extreme pleasure of the 
moment, I am especially pleased to perform the 
grateful duty of expressing my sincere thanks to 
His Excellency Mr. Knox for his delicate courtesy 
in that he is accompanied by persons dearest to the 
sentiment of a highly cultured gentleman ; and may 
I be permitted to render the homage of my respect- 
ful esteem to the distinguished Mrs. Knox, who, 
together with her estimable children, honors us by 
participation in the demonstrations which Guate- 
mala is so happy to offer to the great Republic 
through its eminent representative. 

It gives me honor and pleasure to drink to the 
ever-increasing prosperity of the United States of 
America, to the personal felicity of His Excellency 
President Taft, and to that of his eminent Secre- 
tary of State and Mrs. Knox. 



Reply of Mr. Knox. 



Mr. President, Ladies, and Gentlemen: 

Permit me, in my own behalf and in the name 
of my countrymen, to thank you for the cordial 
welcome and bountiful hospitality you have ex- 
tended to me and to my family. 

Beginning for the fourth time the journey from 
ocean to ocean in Central America, it is with a 
feeling of regret that I realize that the brevity of 
the time at my disposal does not permit me to 
travel more extensively through these countries, 
to enjoy the pleasures of the wonderful scenery 
which so beautifully reflects the magic touch of the 
lavish hand of nature, and to gain the educational 
advantages which observation and friendly commu- 
nication with the people so abundantly afford. 

Guatemala, in its position of close proximity to 
the United States, where there is ever ready an 
eager market for its products, and with its dense 
population, occupies, indeed, an enviable position 
among the Central American nations. This posi- 
tion will be rendered increasingly desirable as time 
goes on and the development of your country's 
enormous possibilities is accomplished. And, Mr. 
President, I may here remark, without, I am sure, 
indulging any view not equally shared by yourself, 
that the continuous development and permanent 

123 



124 GUATEMALA. 

advancement of the Republic depend on its stable 
economic conditions as well as upon its domestic 
content and consequent repose. The unvarying 
friendship of the Government of the United States 
for republican institutions in this hemisphere and 
its desire to see them conserved free from interfer- 
ence are too well known and understood to need 
words of reassurance from me. From the very 
inception of, and even before the independence of, 
the Latin-American nations the attitude of the 
American Government, which later was unmistak- 
ably announced by President Monroe, was well 
known and it continues undiminished to the pres- 
ent day. 

In Central America the United States has a 
special interest not only because of the proximity 
of the five republics to the great commercial high- 
way now nearing completion in Panama, but also 
because of its moral obligations under the Wash- 
ington conventions. The maintenance of peace 
and stable conditions in these republics is a matter 
of first importance to my Government. The faith- 
ful observance of these conventions will, in the 
opinion of my Government, go far toward the 
elimination of the turmoil that has hitherto shaken 
the very foundations of some of the less fortunate 
and less tranquil countries. 

It is the sincere and candid desire of the United 
States to maintain and advance to an even higher 
degree frank and cordial relations with all the 
republics in this hemisphere, and to that end the 



KNOX. 125 

President directed my present mission that, by per- 
sonal contact, I might become better acquainted with 
the men who direct the destinies of these states, in 
order thereby to promote better understanding and 
mutually advantageous relations. That the friend- 
ship of my Government toward these states is frank 
and sincere needs no demonstration other than a 
consideration of the record of the past, and no words 
from me can half so eloquently deal with the situa- 
tion or manifest the true attitude of my Government 
as can its acts toward its sister republics. The 
United States, unfortunately, has many times been 
misrepresented in the past by those unscrupulous 
persons who, through an endeavor to promote their 
own gain, falsely represent the sentiments of the 
American people with regard to this or that nation 
of Central America. 

It is a matter for rejoicing to everyone having 
faith in the great destinies of this continent to 
observe that in this Republic a large stretch of 
steel way which will at some time, in the not far 
distant future, connect the capitals of all the sister 
states of this continent with each other has been 
completed. The completion of the Central Ameri- 
can link will be the first step in the grand project 
of the three Americas' trunk line from New York 
to Buenos Aires. With the proximate inaugura- 
tion of the Guatemalan section of this system there 
will be through railway connection from New York 
to Guatemala City. 

The effect of a through trunk line of railroad on 



126 GUATEMALA. 

the countries of Central America would be to sow 
the prolific seed of communication in rich districts 
and the consequent development of mutual com- 
merce and the advantageous exploitation of bound- 
less native resources. To this great central artery 
the transverse lines from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 
acting as feeders, would contribute to swell the 
international traffic. 

In conclusion, Mr. President, allow me to in- 
dulge the hope that the relations between our 
respective countries may become increasingly cor- 
dial and close, to the mutual benefit of both, and 
for your warm welcome and your cordial and grace- 
ful hospitality and entertainment to sincerely thank 
you. 



VII 



Speeches in Venezuela 



127 



speech of Dr. Marquez Bustillos, Governor of the 
Federal District, at the Municipal Council, 
Independence Hall, Caracas, March 2j, igi2, 
in welcoming Mr. Knox. 



Excellency: 

The municipality and the people of Caracas, in 
the name of whom I, as governor of the Federal 
District, have the honor to address you, feel great and 
singular pleasure in welcoming you to this spot, a 
place of cherished remembrances in the struggles 
which form our political history. In you we greet 
the illustrious statesman who brings us as a pledge 
of friendship words from the country of the im- 
mortal Washington, he who was, and with justice 
is called, "the first in peace, the first in war, the first 
in the hearts of his countrymen". 

While thanking your excellency for the honor 
you confer upon us by your visit to the Govern- 
ment and to the municipality of the Federal Dis- 
trict, we pray for your personal happiness and for 
that of all the persons of your distinguished party, 
and hope that the impressions which you take away 
upon parting may be pleasant and lasting. 

s 105 — 9 129 



Reply of Mr. Knox. 



Excellency : 

I had not known until I entered this hall, sacred 
not only to the liberty of Venezuela but to all of 
Latin America, that the great honor was to be done 
to me of permitting me to speak in this distinguished 
presence. It would be a cold heart that would not 
throb with the highest emotions standing in this 
sacred place. This noble scene, depicted upon can- 
vas in the background, is a reenactment of one in 
our own history that is sacred to every American, 
be he a North or South American, because, after 
all, we were but a short time before you in our 
aspirations for liberty and in our declaration of 
independence. Your excellency has been kind 
enough to wish that my sojourn among you should 
be pleasant. I am frank to say that in the short 
time that we have been upon your hospitable soil 
one act of kindness has crowded another act of 
kindness so rapidly that one's vocabulary of grati- 
tude and appreciation is inadequate to meet such a 
splendid ovation. I wish to proceed from this hall, 
dedicated to the holy cause of liberty, with my 
suite to the adjacent park and there lay, as an evi- 
dence of the appreciation of the American Gov- 
ernment and the American people, a wreath at the 
foot of Bolivar, the great Liberator of the South. 
130 



Remarks of Mr. Knox upon placing a wreath at 
the foot of the statue of Bolivar in Caracas, 
Venezuela, March 2j, igi2. 



Mr. Minister: 

In the name of the people and of the President 
of the United States I beg to lay this token of 
appreciation, respect, and veneration at the £oot 
of the statue of the great Venezuelan Liberator. 

[Remarks of Mr. Matos, Minister for Foreign 
Affairs, were extempore and not taken.] 

131 



speech of His Excellency Manuel A. Matos, Min- 
ister for Foreign Affairs of Venezuela, at a 
banquet given to Mr. Knox at Miraflores, 
March 24, igi2. 



Mr. Minister: 

I comply with the instructions of the President 
of the Republic to tell you that your presence 
amongst us is regarded with the greatest satisfac- 
tion by the Government and people of Venezuela. 
Upon selecting you to visit these countries in its 
name your Government has furnished fresh evidence 
of the friendly interest which they inspire, tend- 
ing thus to strengthen the bonds which bind us to 
the country of Washington and Lincoln. 

Your visit, Mr. Minister, must further serve to 
make better known in your country the conditions 
of vitality of our own, thus accentuating sentiments 
of mutual respect and consideration and developing 
at the same time on a larger scale our commercial 
relations. It is a further step in the fruitful work 
of Pan-Americanism which our Liberator sought 
to accomplish in his beautiful conception of the 
Congress of Panama and which the United States 
is supplementing with a perseverance worthy of the 
genius of your noble race. 

A principal factor of this union of the peoples of 
America so necessary to the high aims of human 
132 



MATOS. 133 

progress will be the opening of the Panama Canal, 
which will not only bring nearer the East and the 
West, uniting the two oceans, but which will also 
draw closer together the republics of South and 
Central America and the great Republic of the 
north, giving a new and vigorous impulse to civiliza- 
tion resulting from the interchange of the products 
and ideas of all the regions of the world. 

Venezuela, being situated on the route to Eu- 
rope, will be one of the nations most benefited by 
that colossal work of American endeavor from which 
we perceive a new element of progress which will 
permit us to develop further the sources of our 
natural wealth and to better show our character- 
istics of nationality on the American union. 

Mr. Minister, the blood of your compatriots 
watered the foundations of Venezuelan independ- 
ence and the recognition of our country has been 
perpetuated in monuments which you will have 
occasion to see at Maracay and Puerto Cabello. This 
is a further cause for the regard of the Venezuelan 
people for the American people, a regard which we 
have no doubt must be strengthened as a result of 
your visit because of the high authority and repre- 
sentation with which you are invested and because 
of your remarkable merits as a statesman. 

Gentlemen, in the name of the President of the 
Republic, I invite you to drink to the prosperity of 
the America people, to the happiness of their Presi- 
dent, His Excellency Mr. Taft, and to the hope 
that His Excellency Mr. Knox and his honored 



134 VENEZUELA. 

family, during their brief stay amongst us, may 
have reason only to be truly pleased and that they 
may take from our country as pleasing and lasting 
impressions as we shall have to retain of them. 



Reply of Mr. Knox. 



Mr. President and Gentlemen : 

It is indeed fortunate for me that the burdens 
and responsibilities of the office I hold are tem- 
pered by the enjoyment of privileges and advan- 
tages which would not otherwise have been within 
my reach. Not the least of these is the opportu- 
nity now vouchsafed to me of coming among you, 
my fellow countrymen of the Western World, with 
a message of fraternal good will from the Govern- 
ment and people of the northern Republic. I 
prize this privilege beyond measure, and the more 
so as in this historic land, favored by nature to be 
the fitting cradle of the new birth of occidental 
empire under the proud Castilian banner of its first 
explorers, I feel myself among friends. The ob- 
stacles of distance, of diverse ancestral origin, and 
of dissimilar language disappear with the warmth 
of your greeting. The Saxon North and the 
Hispanic South meet as associates in the com- 
mon cause of progress and peace, alike devoted 
to the common duty of promoting the good will 
and the mutual confidence and esteem which draw 
the democratic commonwealths of America into 
relations of true brotherhood. 

The auspicious occasion of my present visit is 
the proximate opening of the great canal. This 

135 



136 VENEZUELA. 

Stupendous work, the dream of centuries, since 
Balboa first trod the solitudes of Darien, is far 
more than a commercial enterprise. It is a great 
humanitarian achievement, fraught with endless 
possibilities of good for all the nations of the con- 
tinent. It opens an avenue by which the peoples 
of the eastern and western coasts of the northern 
and southern continents are brought into closer 
relation. The barrier of ages becomes the high- 
way of the future, not for the devastating advance 
of conquering hosts but for the beneficial move- 
ment of progress and development, in which Vene- 
zuela can not but take an important part. The 
diversion of a vast share of the commerce of 
Europe and America to the new channel must nec- 
essarily bring benefit to the neighboring countries. 
The already intimate intercourse of my country 
with yours can not retrograde. The volume of 
incoming and outgoing commerce between Vene- 
zuela and the United States is now relatively larger 
than that between Venezuela and any other nation. 
Good will and mutual confidence will make it 
actually larger. It is to the interest of Venezuela 
that it should increase. The augmentation of the 
exports of a vast and as yet but partly developed 
country like yours is a stimulus to the expanding 
development of its natural resources and the growth 
of economic prosperity. The increase of its im- 
ports is the natural reflex action due to domestic 
prosperity. It is, indeed, an index of national 
well-being. Moreover, advancement of home in- 



KNOX. 137 

terests makes for the material and moral uplifting 
of the country and is the surest step to the firm 
assurance of domestic peace and stable government, 
which all good citizens desire and for which they 
should strive whole-heartedly. 

In coming to you with an earnest message of 
peace and good will, I am especially mindful of the 
historical fact that the political and traditional sym- 
pathies of the United States and Venezuela are in 
singularly close accord. If we have our Washing- 
ton, you have your Bolivar, happily styled by Henry 
Clay as the Washington of the South, who bore 
upon his breast during his life the miniature of 
Washington, presented to him through Lafayette 
in 1825, more proudly than he wore the insignia of 
rank, a sentiment you have respected and recorded 
upon the imperishable and noble statue erected to 
Bolivar's memory. Bolivar was the pioneer in the 
noble work of upbuilding, in the northern region of 
South America, a free commonwealth like ours of 
the North; and I can not forget that the vast terri- 
tory which Bolivar liberated embraced the broad 
reaches of the Caribbean and the Pacific, including 
the very Isthmus through which we are now, as 
appointed agents for the benefit of all the Americas 
and of all the nations of the earth, opening a world 
highway. Bolivar, his noble work achieved, re- 
garded the isthmian barrier with regretful eyes, 
feeling in his great heart a keen longing for the 
accomplishment of the century-old dream of Latin 
America that the Atlantic and Pacific might in time 



138 VENEZUELA. 

be joined by a pathway through the land whose 
freedom he had won. It was one of the objects 
brought before the Pan-American Congress of 
Panama in 1826, but the intelligent, although fruit- 
less and perhaps premature, efforts of your great 
Liberator failed to mold the project into practical 
shape. Let us believe that the spirits of Bolivar 
and Washington are sharing our mutual felicitations 
over the approaching realization of the unparalleled 
task, and inspiring us all, Venezuelans and Ameri- 
cans alike, with the glad resolve to know each other 
better, to strengthen the ties of mutual confidence 
that happily exist between us, and to give lasting 
expression to that sentiment of disinterested help- 
fulness which moves the two peoples to live in 
amity and essential harmony, each rejoicing when 
more of peace, of prosperity, of happiness, and of 
security comes into the life of its brother people. 



Farewell speech of Mr. Knox to His Excellency 
Juan Vicente Gomez, President of Venezuela, 
March 2§, igi2. 



Mr. President: 

In saying good-by to you I wish to repeat that 
which we have tried to say to you again and again 
and which we feel most sincerely and deeply, and 
that is that you have our profound gratitude for 
all of the acts of kindly courtesy and hospitality 
that you have shown us since we have been in 
your Republic, and we shall carry home with us 
everlasting recollections of satisfaction, pleasure, 
enjoyment, and profitable observation. For my 
entire party I wish to emphasize the depth of our 
appreciation. 

I have been asked especially, Mr. President, by 
the representatives of the American press who 
have accompanied us upon this journey to say to 
you for them, and with as much sincerity as I have 
endeavored to express my own feelings, that they 
rest under the deepest debt of gratitude not only 
for the comforts, recreations, and pleasures you 
have given to them, but for the particularly per- 
sonal touch that you have given to every courteous 
act of hospitality of which they have been the 
recipients. 

I will say good-by, and I hope to have the 

pleasure of seeing you again. 

139 



Address of welcome of Senor Don Santiago Gon- 
zalez Guinan, President of the State of Carabobo, 
delivered at Valencia, March ^5, igi2, by the 
Comandante in the name of the State Executive. 



Your Excellency : 

It would have been a pleasure to the govern- 
ment of the State and also to the people of Valen- 
cia to present its respects and demonstrate its 
sympathy with you by a feast of greater splendor, 
but your rapid transit through the city scarcely 
affords us sufficient time to offer this glass of cham- 
pagne in the station park and without other orna- 
ments than nature's green foliage and the blue 
dome of a tropical sky, and this is possible only 
through the consent of your excellency to stop a 
moment in spite of your limited time. 

In thus affording me, through your courtesy, 
the opportunity of carrying out in this way the 
part of the program assigned to me by the Govern- 
ment of Venezuela in connection with your visit, I 
take occasion, moved both by my personal feehngs 
and the natural impulse of the moment, to impress 
upon your mind the sincerity with which I drink 
to the welfare of your wife, the lasting memory of 
your trip, the reciprocal cordiality of Presidents 
Gomez and Taft, and, lastly, to your great country, 
which as a unique instance in history has attained 
140 



GUINAN. 141 

to a conquest of rights without shedding of blood 
and which, in the midst of the wonderful develop- 
ment of its civilization, fully meets the aspirations 
of the human race in the unparalleled progress 
of its democratic institutions. Your excellency's 
health. 



Reply of Mr. Knox. 



Mr. Comandante: 

No program of entertainment that you might 
have devised for me, and I know how well Vene- 
zuelans do devise their programs of hospitality, 
could have made a deeper impression upon me 
than the one I see before me, namely, the sight of 
so many strong men and so many beautiful ladies. 
You have voiced a wish that my visit in Venezuela 
should have been a pleasant one. We have not 
only had days and hours of pleasure, but one 
pleasure has crowded another so rapidly that it is 
almost literally true that every moment of time 
that we have spent in your beautiful country has 
found us to be the recipients of the most kindly 
hospitality, of the best of good cheer not only from 
your officials and those who may have been desig- 
nated by the Government to extend to me a wel- 
come, representing as I do the people of the United 
States, but I am glad to say that I have been able 
to read in the faces, and looking into the eyes of 
all the people of Venezuela, a welcome which I 
shall never forget. 

I beg to propose the health, the happiness, the 
peace, and the prosperity of the Republic of Vene- 
zuela and its generous, hospitable, and kindly 
people. 
142 



speech of Senor Don Jose Felipe Arcay, Collector 
of Customs at Puerto Cabello, Venezuela^ March 
25, 1912. 



Your Excellency, Ladies, and Gentlemen: 

While greeting you in the name of the National 
Government which I represent, in my own, and in 
that of the high public officials who accompany me, 
it is most pleasing to say that the honor you confer 
upon us by your visit is a source of true satisfaction 
which we duly appreciate, not only because we con- 
sider it a special demonstration of sincere friendship 
for our Republic, but also because it is the first time 
that an American Secretary of State has visited our 
country bearing with him true ideas of American 
unity, strengthening and making more friendly, if 
possible, the cordial relations existing between your 
Republic and ours. 

The sincere welcome you have received and the 
demonstrations of deference of which you have been 
the object by the Chief Magistrate of the nation, 
by all the important persons of his Government, 
and by the people in general, are unmistakable proofs 
that we have been impressed with your visit, which 
greatly honors us. We are certain that with your 
clear judgment you will be able to appreciate the 
progressive advance which our industries, our agri- 
culture, and in general all the branches constituting 

143 



144 VENEZUELA. 

our territorial riches are making under an era of 
peace wisely founded and maintained by the modest 
and equally patriotic citizen who guides the des- 
tinies of the Republic, Gen. Juan Vicente Gomez. 

You have been able to observe, despite the 
briefness of your stay among us, the good will 
which animates the Chief Magistrate of the country 
toward all that tends to its aggrandizement, and in 
effect he is taking measures to the end that the 
proximate opening of the Panama Canal will find 
Venezuela in a truly prosperous condition, so that 
we may advance our great commercial interests. 

We drink, therefore, to the country of Wash- 
ington and to its worthy representative. 



Reply of Mr. Knox. 



Mr. Collector: 

It will be a pleasing message, sir, that I will be 
enabled to carry to the President and people of the 
United States as the result of my visit to Vene- 
zuela. President Taft conceived in his mind that 
because of the early opening of the Panama Canal 
the relations of the United States to our neighbors 
on the littoral of the Caribbean Sea must neces- 
sarily be closer and more intimate. He believed 
that if he would send to you that officer of the Gov- 
ernment of the United States who is charged with 
the duty and responsibility of our relations with 
foreign governments, the more intimate, direct, 
and personal acquaintance would be an advantage 
not only to us but he hoped also to them; and 
when I return I can cheerfully say to the President, 
and through him to the people of the United 
States, that in the great Republic of Venezuela 
from the moment my foot first touched its shores 
until the moment when I said to you my last 
farewell there has been nothing but kindness and 
hospitality, not only upon the part of the people 
but upon the part of your President, to whom you 
have referred, and who has been kindness itself to 
us all. 

s 105 — 10 145 



VIII 



Speeches in the Dominican Republic 



147 



speech of Mr. Knox to the President of the Domini- 
- can Republic, Santo Domingo, March ^7, igi2. 



Mr. President and Gentlemen : 

In fulfillment of the wish of the President of 
the United States that I should personally meet 
the eminent men to whom the people of the neigh- 
boring Caribbean countries have confided the reins 
of government and that I should enjoy the privi- 
lege of becoming better acquainted with the peo- 
ples of those countries, it is my good fortune to 
come among you bearing a cordial message of good 
will from the Government and people of the United 
States to their comrades in the community of 
American republics. I feel especial gratification 
in being enabled for the first time to breathe the 
air of the oldest city in all the Americas, identified 
for all time with the undying fame of Columbus, 
founded by the great Admiral's brother; the spot 
where first were planted the fertile seeds of civic 
order and of Christianity in the great western 
empire of the peoples; the scene of the untiring 
efforts of the discoverer to found an enduring 
civilization ; and the home of Las Casas, that great 
and good man who, in the sixteenth century, stood 
forth as the advocate of the rights of man and who 
is justly revered by all liberty-loving Americans as 
one of the earliest apostles of democracy and 

freedom. 

149 



150 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. 

I Stand, as it were, in the passing shadow of the 
bereavement your country has suffered in the loss 
of that humble, unselfish, and sincere patriot, 
Ramon Caceres, slain at his post of duty; but I 
rejoice to see the passing of that dark cloud with- 
out disturbing the normal march of your people in 
the broad path of orderly self-control. It is an 
especial satisfaction to me that I can say this to 
you, men of Santo Domingo, who are in a posi- 
tion to bear witness to the unfeigned interest the 
United States takes in the welfare and stable prog- 
gress of the peoples of the great American brother- 
hood ; to the earnest sympathy we feel for all the 
younger commonwealths that, like your own, have 
passed through the fires of tribulation toward a 
higher and better national life; and to the unselfish 
spirit that prompts my countrymen and the Gov- 
ernment of which I am a part to extend a ready 
helpfulness to all who are prepared and willing to 
help themselves to win stability and good order for 
themselves and for their posterity. 

Santo Domingo stands to-day a bright example 
to all the Americas and to the world, teaching the 
lesson that all free peoples are fit for good self- 
government if they set about it in a way to do jus- 
tice to themselves. That is what you Dominicans 
have done, and it is precisely because of this that 
my country was enabled to lend you a helping hand 
in order to strengthen and make durable the rehabili- 
tation for which you strove. The rapid growth of 
national revenue and agricultural resources in the 



KNOX. 151 

last five years is far beyond the most fervent expec- 
tations. I am convinced that this is but the begin- 
ning, and that your Republic is but on the threshold 
of still greater progress. Your position among the 
countries of the western seas is singularly advanta- 
geous. Lying on the avenues of approach to the 
Isthmian Canal, now on the eve of completion, 
your island can not fail to share in the prosperity 
that will attend the opening of a highway destined to 
change the old currents of international commerce. 
I have had recent occasion to emphasize, in 
public addresses, the new and enlarged responsi- 
bilities to be assumed by the United States as the 
patron of the Isthmian Canal, and as the upholder 
of the time-honored doctrine which bears the name 
of Monroe. The maintenance of that doctrine and 
the effective carrying out of the poHcies that flow 
therefrom demand a peculiarly intimate coordina- 
tion of the part of all the nations which are to reap 
the far-reaching benefits of the canal. It behooves 
them to be cooperative, not obstructive. Each is 
concerned in uplifting itself; each is benefited by 
the uplifting of its neighbor. No more signal ob- 
struction could be interposed in the path of general 
progress than for any of the affected countries to 
fall into disrepute through subversive disturbances 
or failure to discharge its international obligations. 
No greater aid can be given toward realizing that 
general welfare for which we all strive than the 
solid establishment of peaceful prosperity. You, 
men of Santo Domingo, have led the way toward 



152 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. 

realizing this high end through means whereby your 
country may continue to be prosperous, independ- 
ent, self-respecting, and entitled to the respect of all. 

The relations of friendship and cordial inter- 
course which have always existed between the 
United States and Santo Domingo are singularly 
close and have worked for the mutual advantage 
of both countries, thus fulfilling one of the highest 
duties of neighborliness. Flowing through natural 
channels, their reciprocal commerce has thriven 
and has kept afloat one of the few lines of steamers 
that have survived the competition of foreign 
shipping. 

It is the earnest prayer of my country and of 
my countrymen that peace and freedom may be 
the abiding heritage of the people of Santo 
Domingo ; that internal perturbations and external 
conflicts may be averted by wise and just counsels 
at home and in your foreign relations. 

In conclusion, permit me to express how deeply 
I am touched by your cordial welcome; and, feeling 
that it is rather the people of the United States 
that you greet than my individual self, I thank you 
in the name of my fellow citizens. 



Reply of President Victoria. 



, [Translation.] 

Mr. Secretary: 

The presence of the honorable the Secretary of 
State of the United States of America in this 
capital is a source of great satisfaction to the 
Dominican people and to my Government. His 
official visit to the countries of Spanish origin is a 
notable event in the history of these young republics. 

This visit, which undoubtedly must be profitable 
to the good relations so happily existing between 
the United States of America and these peoples, 
co-workers in the cause of peace and progress, will 
mark an epoch in the history of our international 
life — and I hope that it may result thus for the 
good of all and the glory of this continent. 

Accept, Mr. Secretary, the most cordial wel- 
come, which I am glad to extend to you in the 
name of the Dominican people and of the Govern- 
ment which I represent. 

153 



IX 



Speeches in Haiti 



155 



speech of welcome of M. Jirome Salomon, Mayor 
of Port au Prince, on the arrival of Mr. Knox, 
April 3, igi2. 



Excellency: 

To-day offers an occasion of great joy to the city 
of Port au Prince. The fame of a fine and active 
intelligence which preceded your occupancy of the 
eminent post you now fill would alone have rendered 
you worthy of the most cordial reception on our 
part, but to your brilliant personal qualities is added 
your official title, which renders your visit of infinite 
value to us. 

Often the most profound sympathy takes its 
origin in a mark of attenti^on. In knowing 
each other, societies, as individuals, develop and 
strengthen their bonds of friendship. Therefore, 
Mr. Secretary, your thought of traveling in certain 
countries of this hemisphere was a happy one. 
Within a short time, by a supreme and superb effort 
of man's genius, the dream which the Indian pre- 
viously cherished in his native imagination — an 
interoceanic canal — will become a living reality. 

Cities, until now remote, will cease to be such. 
But with the geographical rapprochement an inter- 
communication of spirit should be effected in order 
to attain that excellent relationship of "goodneigh- 
borliness, mutual aid, consideration, and confidence" 

157 



158 HAITI. 

of which you spoke two years since in your masterly 
address at Philadelphia. 

Human demonstrations are of supreme worth 
when directed by the heart. It is indeed the heart 
which directs at this time the great satisfaction felt 
in this capital at your presence and that of the inter- 
esting personages accompanying you. 

We are especially appreciative of the flattering 
tribute rendered us in affording us the pleasure of 
greeting, in conjunction with yourself, Madam 
Philander Knox, whose charming kindliness and 
courteous grace shine with such splendor in your 
magnificent Washington receptions, and which were 
so admired on January i, last, in the superb dwelling 
of the Pan American Union. 

We hope that your excellency will take the same 
pleasure in your sojourn here as we do in your 
friendly testimonial toward the first city of this 
Republic. 



Reply of Mr. Knox. 



Mr. Mayor: 

Speaking for myself, sir, and for the members 
of my party, I wish to express our deepest sense of 
appreciation for the cordiality of the reception by 
the officials of the Republic of Haiti, and I wish to 
place especial emphasis upon the kindliness and 
cordiality with which we have been received by 
the people of Haiti. I can assure you, sir, that this 
has been no more gratifying to us than it will be 
to the President of the United States and to the 
people of the United States when I communicate 
to them the character of our reception here this 
morning. You have stated most eloquently one 
of the main reasons why my visit here is one that 
ought to be not only of advantage to you but of 
advantage to us, and that is the necessity, because 
of the proximate completion of the Panama Canal, 
for the republics and the peoples that are to be 
benefited immediately by the opening of that great 
highway to be brought closer together through 
the means of a more intimate personal acquaintance. 
I am more than satisfied in the few moments that 
I have been in Haiti that my visit here will be 
eminently agreeable. Before concluding, sir, I 
beg to express for Mrs. Knox her and my own 

159 



l6o HAITI. 

deep appreciation for the graceful compliments 
you have paid her in your address of welcome and 
for all of us our gratitude for your extreme 
cordiality. 



speech of Mr. J. N. Leger, Minister for Foreign 
Affairs of Haiti, at a luncheon given by him to 
Mr. Knox, Port au Prince, April j, igi2. 



[Translation.] 

Mr. Secretary of State: 

Upon me devolves the agreeable duty of wel- 
coming you and of thanking you, in the name of 
the Haitian Republic, for your esteemed visit. 

This is the second time that an American Sec- 
retary of State has honored us with his presence. 
The present, like the past, with the folds of our 
flags once more intertwined, evokes the undying 
memory of Savannah, where the heroes of Haitian 
independence rivaled in bravery the intrepid sol- 
diers of Washington. These are ties which can 
not be forgotten. 

I am particularly happy to be, under the cir- 
cumstances, the mouthpiece of the people and 
Government of Haiti, because I recall the tender 
friendship which marks the relations between our 
two peoples. And your visit, all the more valued 
on account of the presence of Mrs. Knox, can not 
but make these relations the more cordial. 

If upon our friendship depends the pleasure of 
your sojourn among us you will both carry from 
your short stay in Port au Prince the same remem- 
brance which I retain of my mission at Washington, 

S 105 II 161 



1 62 HAITI. 

the delicate attentions and the kindly hospitality 
of the American people, and I do not think it too 
much to ask that you please convey to that gener- 
ous people and to their Government our sincere 
wishes for the prosperity of the United States. 

Permit me to raise my glass in honor of Presi- 
dent Taft and to drink to the health of yourself 
and Mrs. Knox. 



Reply of Mr. Knox. 



Mr. Minister: 

It is always a great pleasure to renew an old 
acquaintance. You can imagine how much that 
pleasure is enhanced by renewing it under these 
delightful auspices. We recall with great pleasure 
your mission to Washington, where you were ac- 
companied by your charming wife and young chil- 
dren; and I know of nothing that has occurred 
since I have been in your hospitable country that 
has given me more pleasure than when your good 
wife told me here to-day that some of the happiest 
moments of her life were spent in Washington. 
My pleasure is largely increased by hearing one 
who sustains the same relation to his own Govern- 
ment as I sustain to mine express the deep desire 
that the sympathies, the friendliness, and the inter- 
ests of the two countries should become closer 
and closer. There certainly is no reason why the 
Republics of this ancient island, which was the seat 
of American civilization, and their great sister of 
the north should not be upon the best of terms. I 
am glad to say that I know of no reason to the 
contrary. It is a real pleasure for me to propose 
the health of the President of the Haitian Republic, 
your own, Mr. Minister, and that of your good 
wife and your family, and the prosperity and peace 

163 



164 HAITI. 

of your people; and to express the hope that they 
may soon reach that point in their development and 
prosperity which the rich endowments of nature 
entitles them to attain. 



speech of President Leconte of Haiti at a banquet 
given to Mr. Knox, Port au Prince, April j, 
igi2. 

[Translation.] 

Mr. Secretary of State: 

It gives me great pleasure to reiterate, in the 
name of the Republic of Haiti, our expressions of 
cordial welcome. And it is also pleasing to feel 
that your presence, at this time, among us is an 
unmistakable evidence of the interest which our 
great sister of the north takes in us. 

You, Mr. Secretary of State, have, without 
doubt, passed through countries of Latin America 
that are richer, more prosperous, than ours ; a wealth 
and prosperity which consists, to a large degree, in 
the same conditions existing when those peoples of 
this continent won their independence. 

But here you will encounter the sincere and 
loyal expression of our high esteem and our keen 
sympathies for the people and Government of the 
United States. 

Your visit to us, which we shall cherish as a most 
precious remembrance, will certainly strengthen the 
bonds of intimate friendship which unite the two 
countries, tend to make more cordial our relations, 
and to develop the economic interests of the two 

nations. 

165 



1 66 HAITI. 

I pray that you deign to convey my personal 
respects to President Taft, and that you please 
assure him that the Republic of Haiti earnestly 
wishes him happiness and the prosperity and great- 
ness of the American people. 

I thank you, Mr. Secretary, in the name of the 
Government and people of Haiti, for the visit 
you have been pleased to pay us, and I raise my 
glass in honor of President Taft, to your health and 
to that of your friends, and to the success of the 
mission of friendship and concord which you have 
undertaken. 



Reply of Mr. Knox. 



Mr. President and Gentlemen: 

A glamour of historical memories hovers over the 
Caribbean Sea, and all who feel its influence long 
to visit the spots where the life of the New World 
began with the landing of Columbus, and where the 
foundations of government in the Western Hemi- 
sphere were first laid. I have long desired to see and 
become acquainted with the island world of the In- 
dies. My wish has come to pass through the determi- 
nation of the President of the United States to have 
me carry to the neighboring American peoples a 
fresh message of friendship and good will in the 
name of his and my countrymen. It was especially 
appropriate that the President should do this now, 
on the eve of the completion of the Isthmian Canal, 
and that the theme of his greeting should be the 
benefits to flow to all the nations of the three 
Americas from the opening of that stupendous 
channel of intercourse which, by annihilating the 
barrier between the oceans, must perforce change 
the currents of the world's commerce. 

At a time when the obligation which my coun- 
try has assumed as the agent of the interest of all 
America and of the world in creating a highway for 
international commerce is about to be realized, we 
are impressed with the conviction that the fullest 

167 



1 68 HAITI. 

success of our work is, to a notable degree, depend- 
ent on the peace and stability of our neighbors and 
on their enjoying the prosperity and material wel- 
fare which flow from orderly self-development. A 
community liable to be torn by internal dissension 
or checked in its progress by the consequences of 
nonfulfillment of international obligations is not in 
a good position to deserve and reap the benefits 
accruing from enlarged commercial opportunities, 
such as are certain to come about with the opening 
of the canal. It may indeed become an obstruction 
to the general enjoyment of those opportunities. 

It is with political communities as with the 
human organization, body and soul should be alike 
sound and sane, each attuned to the other, to fit 
the being for the struggle for existence in which it 
is the lot of men and states to be constantly 
engaged. The old Roman adage mens sana in 
corpore sano is in point for both. Not only must 
the body politic be healthy, but the public spirit 
which guides its acts must be equally healthy. Only 
by the union of these two conditions can a state 
hold its place in the assemblage of nations, or 
aspire to win a better station. 

It is the fervent desire and the earnest hope of 
the nation I represent that all its comrades of the 
American fraternity shall attain to this well-balanced 
condition, or shall conserve it where already pos- 
sessed. We wish to see them all independent, 
contented, orderly, and materially prosperous, each 
gaining the fullest measure of well-being of which 



KNOX. 169 

it is naturally and physically capable, each bearing 
good will for its neighbors and deserving their good 
will in return. We begrudge the success of none ; 
on the contrary, on the few occasions where help- 
fulness is possible we have gladly given help. 

The relations of the Haitian Republic with the 
United States have been singularly intimate for 
many years. The volume of American-Haitian 
trade is proportionately large. The enterprise of 
our citizens has contributed to the development of 
Haitian resources. I look for the time, not far 
distant, when these relations may be expanded and 
strengthened, not through any invasive activity on 
our part, but through the steady self-development 
of the resources of Haiti under the benevolent sway 
of peace. Your country has almost incalculable 
native wealth at command. With a self-respecting 
energy or purpose; with a contented and thrifty 
population ; with wise counsels in the seats of gov- 
ernment, devoting the efforts of the nation to the 
great work of internal exploitation of natural 
resources and perfection of agricultural methods; 
and with the maintenance of peace, without as well 
as within, you Haitians have a future before you 
which other less-favored countries might well envy, 
and which we of the United States would witness 
with hearty sympathy. 

I have a disposition to emphasize the essential 
condition of peace, at home and abroad, as a need 
in working out the material improvement of a 
country. While it is doubtless true that trade and 



170 HAITI. 

trade extension are the foundation in practical life 
of most advances in civilization, yet the great 
modern movements of accord and good under- 
standing between nations are after all the lofty 
achievements and the crown of all international 
relations. The controlling principle of these move- 
ments is peaceful and beneficial international inter- 
course and a peaceful settlement by arbitration of 
differences and controversies — extending that prin- 
ciple, by friendly diplomacy, as rapidly as possible 
to embrace an increasing number and variety of 
disputes. The tide of world sentiment is setting 
strongly toward the accommodation of international 
controversies by processes of reason and justice; 
not by defiance and the sword. That tide is sweep- 
ing over my own country, where the ideal of uni- 
versal peace with justice is dear to every heart. 
Should not we, of the common brotherhood of all 
the Americas, share alike in devotion to that ideal, 
and stand mutually helpful toward whatever may 
assure, by pacific means, peace and good will among 
brethren ? 

I thank you for the cordial personal welcome 
you have given me. I shall long treasure the 
memory of my visit. 



speech of Mr. Knox at a breakfast given by the 
Municipal Council at the Bellevue Club, Port 
au Prince, April ^, igi2, in response to a brief 
speech of introduction by the Mayor. 



Mr. Mayor: 

I thank you very much, sir, for this additional 
act of kindness, and we have been the recipients of 
many acts of kindness since we have been in Port 
au Prince, in your hospitable country, in your hos- 
pitable city, and among your hospitable people. 
My visit, however, would not, from my point of 
view, be considered an entire success if it were 
merely confined to pleasures and the delights of 
intercourse with the people of this city. I have 
observed here a thing that makes me very glad, and 
that is that the Haitians seem to have realized that 
industry is at the basis of prosperity and that the 
object of their Government is now undoubtedly 
to maintain peace at home and peace with her 
neighbors, so that industrialism, which is the sole 
foundation of wealth and prosperity, shall proceed 
uninterrupted. You seem to have discovered, as 
all nations must discover in their march toward the 
progress of which they are capable, that the true 
function of government is not to say to a man, 
"Work and we will reward you", but to say to all 
of its citizens, "Work and the government will 
secure to you the results of your labor, that it shall 

171 



1 72 HAITI. 

not be taken away from you by violence or by in- 
justice". You have discovered, further, I believe, 
that while the true function of government is not 
what I have just described, it is this : to honestly 
collect the revenues, as lightly tax the people as the 
necessities of the government demand, and then to 
apply these revenues honestly for the best interests 
of the country. I am satisfied from a conversation 
with your worthy President that it is not the inten- 
tion of this administration of affairs in Haiti to 
spend the substance of the people upon unneces- 
sary miHtary establishments but extend those great 
public improvements which make the life of every 
man better. 

These are some of the observations I have made 
since I have been with you, though the time has 
been very short and has been occupied very largely 
with the pleasures of the visit, but I shall carry them 
home to the President of the United States and to 
the people of the United States, and I am satisfied 
that they, with me, will rejoice that everything in 
Haiti seems to be on the upward move. I beg to 
pledge the health of the President and people of 
Haiti and their prosperity. 



X 



Speeches in Cuba 



173 



speech of Seizor Mamiel Sanguily, ■ Minister for 
Foreign Affairs of Cuba, at a banquet given by 
the President of Cuba to Mr. Knox, Habana, 
April II, igi2. 



[Translation.] 

Sir: 

The President of the Republic has honored me 
by charging me with the ofifice — a most pleasant 
one for me — of giving you in his name and in 
the name of the Cuban Government and people 
a most cordial and heartfelt welcome to this isle 
that has rocked the cradle of many a hero, and 
which is ever a hospitable home in which the stranger 
easily forgets his native land midst the blandishments 
of bountiful nature and the warm brotherliness of 
a people as noble as it is good. Harbinger of 
peace, in visiting regions as yet unknown to you, 
peopled by races of an origin and tongue so dif- 
ferent from your own, you do not grasp the pon- 
derous sword of conquest, but rather the glorious 
caduceus of Mercury, symbol of prosperity and 
beneficence, entwined with olive and laurel, some of 
whose leaves shine with the tears of our sisters and 
our own blood, while the heavenly radiance of our 
martyrdom and our heroism blends with the halo of 
light by which it is surrounded and illumined ; for, 
united, the flashing American battalions and the 
careworn Cuban legions, thin and almost naked, 

175 



176 CUBA. 

accomplished — you in a rapid campaign, we bat- 
tling unwearied for half a century — the splendid 
issue which renewed your traditional doctrines of 
world politics and gave new direction to your his- 
toric destiny, while radically changing our secular 
condition, both assuming from that moment, in 
return for new duties and rights toward other na- 
tions, mutual and reciprocal responsibilities by vir- 
tue of which neither do you assume the right of 
oppressing us nor have we suffered the misfortunes 
of a fresh bondage. 

With your excursion to the free commonwealths 
of the Caribbean Sea you complete that other in- 
teresting and fruitful excursion of your illustrious 
predecessor to those republics south of the Equator, 
animated, like him, by the same spirit of harmony 
and fraternity; bearers, both, of one message of con- 
cord and affection which the great Republic then 
sent and now repeats to these impetuous republics, 
shaped to her image, although under different con- 
ditions — some born, as the most recent, at the 
magic touch of her diplomacy ; others, as our 
own, by the help of her arms; and all, perhaps, 
maintained through the efficacy of her original and 
life-giving principles. Wherefore the visit of so 
high an envoy from the largest and most famous 
democracy of the world could never imply purposes 
opposed to the consecration and normal exercise 
and development of republican institutions, not only 
because of the greatness of the august federation 
vvhose conspicuous and worthy representative you 



SANGUILV. 177 

are, and because of the elevation and moral refine- 
ment of the generous people who established it and 
have maintained and aggrandized it in the face of 
great perils and fearful struggles, but because of 
what, in the evolution of ideas and the transforma- 
tion of history, the American spirit, American doc- 
trines, and American action mean in the life of 
modern society. Blessed fruit of a seasoned and 
hard-fought development inspired and sustained by 
the highest aspirations of benevolence and progress, 
Americanism is either an empty word or is as a 
leaven of order, of dignity, and of that serene trust 
which in every man's heart builds up the sense of 
power and righteousness as an impregnable fortress 
and sows in every land the seed of vigorous virtues 
whereby, through its own self-respect and in the ex- 
alted interests of justice, it may become unconquer- 
able and happy. Solely by that spirit which cre- 
ates and upholds, by the humane and fruitful power 
of that doctrine which is the product of a high ava- 
tar of conscience, which is a new gospel of redemp- 
tion and hope for oppressed peoples and bulwark 
of vacillating and unstable democracies, would what 
has been called Pan-Americanism in contradistinc- 
tion to Old World denominations be truly justified 
and have its full force, in harmony with the dig- 
nity and happiness of nations. Whatever may be 
the changes and applications of the Monroe Doc- 
trine — the last phase of which your excellency has 
set forth and interpreted authoritatively in a recent 
well-known speech — it never could imply, as the 

S 105 — 12 



178 CUBA. 

malevolent would wish, a harassing, illegitimate, 
and humiliating suzerainty, consisting of a constant, 
arbitrary, and perturbing interference of an alien 
government in the private and normal life of sov- 
ereign nations. 

My words are prompted, Mr. Secretary, by my 
admiration for your institutions as an old revolu- 
tionist as well as by my esteem and my gratitude as 
a Cuban. By participating in our hard struggle 
with the Spanish power Americans probably ad- 
vanced our independence by several years, assuring 
to us at the same time the favorable outcome of a 
protracted and devastating war, and saving us from 
a corresponding period of hate, bloodshed, and ruin. 
Later, in a demoralized and discouraged commu- 
nity, with their better and, for us, novel methods, 
they corrected pernicious errors, offsetting the de- 
fects of negligence and leveling obstacles that the 
past had laid across our path to a new life, whereby 
wider and brighter prospects were opened up to us. 
And now, if you counsel us in the difficulties of 
national life, pointing out for their avoidance dan- 
gers born of inexperience, excusable in a commu- 
nity undergoing radical changes in organization and 
government by bitter struggling, it constitutes what 
is known as "a policy of prevention"; there being 
nothing reprehensible in your exercise of an office 
operated for our own preservation and profit, and 
our failure to take advantage of the benefits it 
offers would be blameworthy in us, inasmuch as 
we are not to be held responsible for the fatalities 



SANGUILY. 1 79 

of history, nor of the time and place in which 
we entered upon national life. Nor have we 
been the first whom, because of weakness, you 
have sought to admonish as to error or injustice, 
foreseeing calamity and disaster, since in difficult or 
perilous circumstances the constant or direct action 
of your Government in American affairs, almost 
from the beginning of the last century till its end, 
with their assent and often with their compliance, 
imposed timely rectifications on even strong gov- 
ernments and powerful nations, even as in Cuba 
itself — in spite of its great secular and glorious 
titles — the earnest words of your Presidents have 
called attention insistently to the dangers toward 
which its blindness and pride were dragging it long 
before finally issuing against it a sentence from 
which there was no appeal. 

Knowing, thus, our conditions and your ex- 
pressed purposes we should be too suspicious and 
skeptical if we still feared lest, through some evil 
inspiration of violence or through unspeakable mo- 
tives, the stability of our national institutions were 
threatened; the more in that you, too, Mr. Secre- 
tary, have just proclaimed in the very heart of the 
continent that your country is too great and too 
honest to covet foreign sovereignty and too ex- 
tensive to need another's territory; that not in vain 
has an uninterrupted heredity of virtue and culture 
separated immeasurably from the violence of pas- 
sion the luminous serenity of justice, nor from sav- 
age times the present epochs of democracy and 



l8o CUBA. 

righteousness, and that the same distance lies in the 
moral world between the chaotic and dark soul of 
Tamerlane and the pure and immaculate spirit of 
George Washington. 

Moreover, Mr. Secretary, we need you in the 
entire regulation of our national life, as, for many 
and diverse reasons, you need us, and therefore our 
common purpose should be in mutual usefulness by 
the giving and exchange of reciprocal and equiva- 
lent services; although it is clear that for the fulfill- 
ment of such worthy aims it is indispensable that 
neither here nor elsewhere should it be permitted and 
much less proclaimed without due correction, by the 
lawless voice of usury or of mammon, that anyone 
can, by divine right, at his fancy, suppressing the 
Republic by the scratch of a pen, reinstall Cuba as 
a subject colony; for, if we do not live by our own 
right and if our condition is that of a tenant, subject 
at will to alien caprices and interests, there is neither 
dignity in our lives, nor an authority to be re- 
spected in the state, nor any possibility whatever of 
true order and honorable and permanent peace. 
The interests that gained profit or were enriched in 
the public upheaval and interventions brought about 
by circumstances would be well satisfied and glad 
if the halcyon days of their power and predominance 
were to return; but for that very reason the Cuban 
JDeople would be, indeed, unfortunate. 

Only a few weeks ago the people of this city 
rendered their last tribute of pious regard over 
the remains of the sailors who perished on the 



SANGUILY. l8l 

Maine, and in great crowds gathered along the 
shore and followed with bated breath the last voyage 
of the fantastic ship. Yonder on the horizon, as 
the evening fell, what was left of the fearful catas- 
trophe — the mutilated hull — was submerged forever ; 
but in every Cuban, as in so many American homes, 
hearts beat as one remembering past days of anx- 
iety, pain, and glory, and in the former as in the 
latter the tragic remembrance of Xh^ Mai7ie and of 
that sinister night on which by the glow of that great 
disaster this new American nation was brought to 
life was evoked with religious unction. Born midst 
such exceptional circumstances, fruit of such labors, 
Cuba feels that the very roots of her national life 
and of her rights are planted and nourished in the 
conscience of the American nation ; and so, trust- 
ing and grateful, she now extends her loyal hand to 
her powerful and noble friend. When, as a reward 
for your triumphant effort, the two seas separated 
by the Isthmus since remote ages shall be joined in 
one embrace, should their waves, like the folded 
cloak of the Roman ambassador, hide the blessings 
of peace or the horrors of war, Cuba, satisfied and 
content in its happy independence, will enjoy with 
you the incalculable benefits of that universal pros- 
perity which is approaching as the necessary result 
of such a marvelous modification of the continent. 
And you may be sure, likewise, that in the hour of 
danger and of conflict your soldiers will not fight, 
should it be necessary to do so, with such enthusi- 
asm as, for its own independence and in your aid, our 



152 CUBA. 

people would fight, knowing as they do that in the 
present state of the world and in the critical eventu- 
alities of an uncertain and not far-distant future 
never shall the Cuban flag be more secure of respect 
abroad than when close to the beneficent shadow of 
your own, which, strewn with stars, symbols of real 
nations in the full glow of life, prefigures the mystic 
and glorious galaxy of right. And therefore it is its 
high function, in conformity to tradition and purpose, 
to create free commonwealths and new republics 
throughout the continent and not — as those who out- 
rage her name by invoking her power in furtherance 
of inconceivable enmities and ignoble interests — 
to be the threat and scourge of weak nations. But 
if the relentless purpose which iniquitous prophets 
of evil have been announcing should ever be ful- 
filled by reason of the changes and weaknesses to 
which humanity is subject, surely some unheard-of 
portent would befall; perhaps that majestic woman 
standing on Bedloe Island in the great estuary 
would loose her metal girdle and extinguish in the 
seething waves the gigantic torch that illumines the 
vast ocean and the conscience of man, while a fear- 
some clamor sprung from a terrified disenchantment 
would be reechoed from wave to wave and from 
height to height, proclaiming to the darkness of the 
world that Liberty was no more. 

Never, however, shall such a misfortune take 
place, far more grievous and fatal than if at a mo- 
ment's notice the light of all the stars should be 
extinguished. Wherefore allow me to be the mouth- 



SANGUILY. 183 

piece of hope and love, in the sincere trust, Mr. 
Secretary, that you may enjoy a long and happy life 
of honor and of glory; that your illustrious Presi- 
dent may be in all circumstances, as heretofore, the 
noble friend of Cuba ; and that, crowned with bless- 
ings, in the prosperity of a spotless fame, your 
great nation may be now, and in centuries to come, 
protector of the law, aegis of the weak, example to 
the strong, firm foundation of civilization, palladium 
of republican America, realizing its great destiny 
as it circles in its huge orbit like a benign star, in 
harmony with all human interests and amidst the 
blessings of all the nations of the earth. 



Reply of Mr. Knox. 



Mr. President and Gentlemen: 

It has been my high privilege to be the Presi- 
dent's chosen instrument for conveying to the in- 
dependent nations of the Caribbean at this time, 
when the completion of the Panama Canal is near, 
a message of fraternal good will and an assurance, 
if, indeed, assurance were necessary, of the deep 
sense of responsibility, felt by the Government and 
people of the United States that the great work 
which we have undertaken shall helpfully contrib- 
ute to the well-being of the commonwealths of the 
Western World and be instrumental in bringing 
closer all the peoples of the Americas, inspiring 
them with broader confidence, more intimate sym- 
pathy, and more practical reciprocal helpfulness in 
the promotion of their mutual advantage and coor- 
dinate development. This was the message I car- 
ried, not alone to the peoples of the Caribbean 
littoral but to all the countries of Latin America, 
emphasizing the sincerity of purpose and the pur- 
ity of motive which have animated the United 
States in all its dealings with Latin America. 
As I said at Panama, intelligent consideration of 
the relations of the United States to the other 
American republics makes it clear that our poli- 
cies have been without a trace of sinister motive or 
design, craving neither sovereignty nor territory. 
184 



KNOX. 185 

The special purpose of my mission having been 
accomplished, it is alike appropriate and gratifying 
that on my homeward journey I should have the 
opportunity to get into closer personal touch with 
the one sovereign people of the whole Western 
World who are, above all, in a position to know 
and appreciate the broad and essentially conscien- 
tious policy of Anglo-Saxon America toward 
Latin America. So far as Cuba is concerned, our 
record speaks for itself. It is consistent and un- 
blemished. It was formulated and proclaimed be- 
fore the first shot was fired at Manila initiating the 
conflict to free from a crushing despotism "this 
fairest land the eye had ever seen" and which, hap- 
pily, ended in gaining a free Cuba for free Cubans. 
That policy has been lived up to ever since. It 
needs no reiterative protestations. It is a constant, 
vital entity, needing not to be galvanized into spas- 
modic action ; neither should its true import be 
dulled by wearisome repetition. Good faith is a 
thing that proves itself by deeds, not words. Our 
deeds in respect to the Cuban people are before 
you. Look to them for fresh assurance — if there 
be any doubting Thomas who thinks he needs it — 
that the United States stands firmly as the true, 
wholehearted friend of Cuba, glad of the work we 
have done for the Cuban people and ready to aid 
them to conserve the civic and material benefits 
which it was our good fortune to be instrumental 
in helping them to win. 



1 86 CUBA. 

First among these benefits is self-government. 
We hold that all peoples are fit to work out the 
highest ideals of self-government by creating for 
themselves and by their own effort a healthy national 
life, inspired by the safe and sane exercise of the 
popular will, homogeneous in all its parts, free from 
radical weakness or corporeal blemish, self-respect- 
ing and imbued with respect for the rights of all at 
home and abroad. Providence has called upon free 
Cuba to be a model state among the popular com- 
monwealths of the world and has opened the way 
to the achievement of that noble purpose. That is 
the goal for which we have, with you, spent our blood 
and treasure and to which our earnest efforts will 
ever be directed. The beginning of Cuban political 
life was the affirmation of the brotherhood of the 
American and Cuban peoples. Let us ever be 
brothers. 

I speak to you, with all the earnestness I may, 
the thoughts that rise at this time, when Cuba stands 
on the threshold of a new era of even greater pros- 
perity and progress by reason of being a natural 
gateway to the great Isthmian Canal and being des- 
tined, in the inevitable logic of events, to share in 
the almost incalculable possibilities to spring from 
the new channel to be opened to the world's com- 
merce under a fresh and controlling impetus. It 
makes a newer world of the New World of Colum- 
bus. As I said at Panama, " In this new world we 
must be found drawn closer by sympathies and 
mutual esteem, and working in harmony toward 



KNOX. 187 

beneficent ends. This must be so, for our greatest 
interests are those that are common to us all." We 
must not forget that in order to work together 
toward common ends each co-worker must be in 
a position to do his effective share of the common 
task. Even as the capacity of the individual 
workman is dependent on soundness of body and 
mind, so the potential efficiency of a community 
is measured by the homogeneous perfection of its 
civic organization and by the logical soundness of 
the public mind that directs its operations. While 
liberty is attained through patriotic valor, yet it 
is only through fraternity and unselfish coordina- 
tion that it is perpetuated. The crisis in the life 
of any nation that has thrown off the yoke of 
tyranny is the period of rehabilitation. When the 
cohesive bonds of a common peril are relaxed by 
the removal of the danger and liberty succeeds 
oppression, unselfish fraternity must be substituted 
for the unity which a common danger furnished 
during the struggle for national rights. A people 
liberated from oppressive tyranny is no better 
off if unrestrained selfishness, which almost in- 
evitably leads to anarchy, is the result. A people 
so situated can not profitably exercise the right of 
self-government unless they work faithfully together 
with singleness of aim. Mistrust, jealousy, selfish- 
ness, aloofness, and apathy will rob a people of their 
birthright. There is always more to unite than to 
separate all classes of citizens, and in Cuba, as in all 
republics, all classes should be alert in the conscious- 



Ibb CUBA. 

ness of their civic duties and not remit the destinies 
of their country to the hands of the few who, with 
nothing to lose and everything to gain, make a busi- 
ness of the poHtics of their country. 

It is the fervent prayer of my Government and 
my countrymen that free Cuba may abide stead- 
fastly in the high station to which Providence has 
called her, sturdy with the strength of stable self- 
control, free from the infirmities that beset weak 
peoples, and earnest in the path of self-development 

Coming among you as I do, the cordiality of 
the welcome I have received makes it impossible to 
realize that I am in a strange land, among strange 
kinsfolk. I feel, rather, that I am of your brother- 
hood, as you are of mine. I come, too, at an 
auspicious time, when the association of feeling 
between my country and yours is made closer by 
the sad memories attending the removal of the 
wreck of the Maine. The waves of ocean have 
clasped that ill-fated ship in their eternal embrace, 
and your beautiful harbor is no longer marred by 
the presence of a gloomy monument of national 
resentment and strife. As the sun rises upon the 
unbroken expanse of your noble bay, it brings a 
message of oblivion of the dark past and of 
encouragement for the new Cuba, strong in the 
possession of rightful strength and at peace with 
all the world. 



XI 



Speeches on Board the '* Washington" 



speech of Mr. Knox to the officers and men on board 
the U. S. S. ''Washington', Sunday, April i^, 
igi2. 



Gentlemen : 

When Captain Hughes asked me, a day or so 

ago, if I would be willing to say a few words to the 

men of this gallant ship, I told him promptly and 

without hesitation that it would give me great 

pleasure, indeed, to do so. I realize how utterly 

impossible it will be for my voice to reach the ears 

of all of you here upon this open deck. I have had 

the experience upon this voyage of talking against 

steam whistles at Colon, talking against the merry 

chat of the dancers in the ballroom at Guatemala 

• 

City, but this is the first time in my life that I have 
been compelled to compete with the roaring of Old 
Ocean, and I admit in advance my inability to do so. 
I wish you all to be impressed with this fact — 
that I regard the success this mission has attained 
is, in a large degree, due to the men of this ship. 
You have carried us with the promptness of an ex- 
press train upon a well-regulated railroad to our 
several destinations and enabled us promptly to 
meet all our engagements, which is an important 
factor in transactions between representatives of 
different governments. You have not only been 
largely instrumental in the success of the mission, 
but you have contributed greatly to the pleasures, 

191 



192 ON BOARD THE WASHINGTON. 

and I can say to the profit, of those of us upon 
whom the direct responsibilities of its success were 
cast. We have participated with you in your rec- 
reations, we have enjoyed visiting the various 
parts of the ship, and we have seen you in the dis- 
charge of your daily duties, and I wish to say to 
you now, speaking in my official capacity, that the 
knowledge that I have acquired of the personnel of 
one of our great vessels of war will be of inestima- 
ble value to me in the discharge of my official du- 
ties, because you must know that the efficiency of 
diplomacy depends largely upon the Navy and that 
the efficiency of the Navy depends entirely upon 
the character of the crews who man the ships. 
When the United States believes that it is neces- 
sary for the protection of its rights or for the dis- 
charge of its international duties to call upon those 
nations within the special sphere of its influence 
and responsibility to cease needless war, to stop the 
shedding of innocent blood, the presence of an 
American vessel in the neighborhood as an efficient 
means for the enforcement of our rights or the per- 
formance of our duties generally insures the peace 
in the troubled region. 

Gentlemen, I wish to thank you all for the 
many courtesies you have shown my party. I am 
glad of this opportunity of getting closer to you 
than we have been able to do until now. It would 
have been a great satisfaction to have formed the 
personal acquaintance of every man upon this ship, 
but inasmuch as your numbers and the exacting 



KNOX. 193 

and responsible nature of your duties have deprived 
me of that pleasure permit me to say now to you 
that this present opportunity to talk to you has 
been a very real satisfaction and pleasure. 

The other members of my party desire likewise 
to say a word to you and I shall retire now and give 
place to Mr. Hale, one of the editors of th€ 
World's Work, a great periodical with which you 
are all acquainted, that he may say something to 
you in behalf of the American press, which is rep- 
resented on board the Washington. 

s 105—13 



Remarks of Mr. Hale, of the World's Work, on 
board the U. S. S. ''Washington', Su7iday, 
April 14, igi2. 



Mr. Secretary, Captain Hughes, Officers and 
Men of the "Washington": 
The representatives of the press here aboard de- 
sire me to say for them that their interest in the 
American Navy, always great, and their admiration 
for it has been vastly increased by what we have 
seen within the last two months. Aside from the 
chief purpose of our presence here, which has been 
to describe the memorable journey of the Secretary 
through Central American and Caribbean coun- 
tries, we count it a very great opportunity, indeed, 
to have seen something of the life of a naval ves- 
sel, as exemplified on this splendid ship, with its 
splendid officers, and splendid crew, and splendid 
record. We are still a little hazy about things nau- 
tical and very much puzzled by a good deal of the 
language we hear in the wardroom, but we are not 
hazy in our conclusion that if the spirit of enthusi- 
asm and of work which we see here is typical of the 
spirit of the American Navy then that Navy de- 
serves the very best the nation can give, and we 
are not hazy or uncertain in our conviction that if 
Congress will give you the ships you desire there 
will never float on the blue waters of any of the 
194 



HALE. 195 

Seven Seas anything that the clean, intelligent, 
steady nerves, steady-hearted men of the American 
Navy, under their ever-alert officers, can not knock 
the stuffing out of any moment in the day or night, 
if necessary. 

We hope that will never be necessary. Forgive 
me if I say I believe our people hope that any 
dreams of victorious battle that your imaginations 
naturally cherish may never be realized ; hope that 
yours will continue to be the work of keeping the 
Navy in a state of such manifest efficiency that it 
will never be necessary to prove that efficiency. 

But whatever may be the future, it is safe to 
say that you will probably never do a more useful 
or, in its way, more glorious service for your coun- 
try than you have done in conveying the Secretary 
of State on his mission to these troubled regions of 
the world. Secretary Knox has some virtues and 
a number of redeeming vices, but he lacks the great 
characteristic of a politician : he is too modest, and 
he was too modest this morning to tell you of the 
vast importance of this cruise and of the complete 
success, the victorious success, with which it has 
been accomplished ; but I can say as a reporter that 
no man can tell of the results of this mission of 
peace and good will, no man would be foolhardy 
enough to undertake to state the limits of the far- 
reaching results that may flow from the magnificent 
presence in the harbors of all the countries of this 
region of the Maryland and the Washington, great 
engines of war, consecrated to the purposes of 



196 ON BOARD THE WASHINGTON. 

peace, backed up by the words of broad statesman- 
ship, the noble assurances of good will and friendli- 
ness uttered by the Secretary in the capitals of 
these countries. I tell you that the journey upon 
which the Washington has conveyed the Secretary 
of State has been a history-making journey. 

I now give way to one of the great orators and 
statesmen of America, Martin W. Littleton, a 
great friend of the United States Navy, but before 
I do so may I, in the name of the press, wish good 
luck to the good ship Washington, her captain, 
officers, and men, always, on every sea, in every 
port. 



Remarks of Hon. Martin W. Littleton to the offi- 
cers and crew of the U. S. S. ''Washington', 
April 14, igi2. 



I count myself distinctly fortunate in having 
been in Habana at a time when I could be the re- 
cipient of an invitation to make the return journey 
upon the Washington in such goodly company. 
One reason was that I would have an opportunity 
of seeing the conclusion of that pilgrimage of peace 
made by the honorable Secretary of State on behalf 
of the American people to the various countries and 
governments to the south of us. Another reason 
was that I should have a chance to see those who 
are actually primarily engaged in the mission of 
peace because they are always prepared for the 
dangers and demands of war; those who, with the 
honorable Secretary, have been bearing a message 
of goodwill to all the southern countries and cleans- 
ing the bosom of each nation of prejudice and igno- 
rance, that kind of ignorance and prejudice which 
is at the foundation of the disasters of war and 
which serves more to retard human progress than 
all other influences put together. 

It is particularly gratifying to know that this 
pilgrimage, made by the honorable Secretary, re- 
flecting so much credit on him and his wise judg- 
ment, was met by those with whom he came in 

197 



igS ON BOARD the" WASHINGTON. 

contact with unbounded enthusiasm and a grateful 
recognition of our friendly relations. There he was 
received with open arms, with banners, with music, 
with flowers, and innumerable tokens of high 
esteem. 

One word about the Navy. I believe that we 
should have a navy growing and advancing with the 
growth and advancement of our country, not one 
so abnormally large as to provoke the suspicion of 
the world, not one so increasingly small as to invite 
the contempt of other countries, but a navy which, 
like every other great national institution, keeps 
pace with the progress of its people and the advances 
of time. 

I left Congress a week ago this last Wednesday. 
I had just come from a conference of the majority 
side of the House regarding the battleships of the 
future. In my opinion we made a serious mistake 
in deciding that there should be no more battleships 
this year. Some of us have refused to be bound 
by this policy and with the aid of the Senate I feel 
sure that this mistaken policy will be reversed before 
the end of the session, that we will not proclaim to 
the world the discontinuance of the building of 
a navy. 

Just a personal word to you of the crew. You 
come from every part of the United States; you go 
to every part of the world ; you typify the American 
life; you are missionaries and exemplars. You 
inevitably stand for America in every port. I count 
that heroism, that courage, the greatest and the 



LITTLETON. I 99 

best which gives itself to the unseen and undramatic 
drudgery of work in behalf of one's country, such 
as the work rendered by you. These great instru- 
ments of war and of peace, these cruisers and 
battleships, these are your homes. Your charge is 
American liberty and American peace; your emblem 
is the American flag, brilliant in all its manifold 
colors, floating always above you as an unfailing 
inspiration. 



Remarks of Judge Morgan O ' Brien to the officers 
and crew of the U. S. S. ''Washington', April 
i/f., igi2. 



This is a very great privilege, to have had an 
opportunity of coming upon this great battleship, 
through the kindness of the Secretary of State, and 
my purpose is not to detain you with a speech, but 
to make my acknowledgments to him and to the 
captain of this great vessel and to the officers and 
to you men for the pleasure that I have received on 
the occasion of my first experience as a visitor and 
guest on one of these great vessels. Like the dis- 
tinguished orator, Mr. Littleton, whom you have 
just heard, neither of us knows much about a ship. 
I of course know much more about it than he does. 
They tell a story of one of our greatest Presidents, 
Mr. Lincoln, who, during the Civil War, called a 
Cabinet meeting to consider certain proposed 
changes in the policy of the Navy. When they 
came out of the meeting, having had an acrimonious 
discussion as to changes suggested in the types of 
ships to be used in the future conduct of the war, 
Mr. Chase, then Secretary of the Treasury, said to 
the President, "It is too bad that Mr. Welles, the 
Secretary of the Navy, should have been so strong 
and positive in his views as to the future conduct of 
the Navy, and I fear he has annoyed you"; where- 



O BRIEN. 20I 

upon the President said to Chase, "You mustn't 
worry about that. I will come out all right. When 
I came into the Presidency and invited Mr. Welles 
into the Cabinet neither of us then knew the bow 
from the stern of a boat. I have since learned the 
difference though up to this time he has failed to 
note the distinction, but as he is an able and patri- 
otic man the Navy will not suffer." 

Our great Secretary of State, Mr. Knox, on 
returning from his mission of peace, has indicated 
and pointed out what advances have been made and 
how the Navy has steadily grown in efficiency and in 
strength and in usefulness. This occasion is an 
inspiring one. A beautiful Sunday morning on 
the Atlantic Ocean with the sun shining, a great 
ship on its return from an epoch-making trip, here 
in the presence of the representative of our Gov- 
ernment, the opportunity is afforded to express to 
the officers and men of the Washington the feelings 
which all Americans entertain, irrespective of parties, 
for the Navy and for the splendid unselfish and 
patriotic work which they are performing for their 
country. Ideals and standards are the real things 
in life and in no department of government service 
are they better or higher. 

When one feels deeply and strongly, when 
sentiments swell from the heart it is difficult to 
appropriately express them. Silence is the lan- 
guage of deep and abiding feeling. I wish, how- 
ever, to say to you how much pleasure we have had 
in being here to-day and meeting the rank and file 



202 ON BOARD THE WASHINGTON. 

of this great ship and of saying to the Secretary of 
State what a great honor he has conferred on us 
in extending the invitation to be his guests, and I 
shall carry away the recollection of this occasion 
and an abiding appreciation of the great kindness 
extended and a keener realization of the splendid 
service which you men are doing and the obligation 
which you are placing upon every citizen of our 
country for your unselfish work in promoting the 
peace of the world and the prosperity of our 
country. 



XII 



statement to the Press 



203 



statement to the Press by Mr. Knox upon his return 
to Washington, April ly, igi2. 



The purpose of my mission, as indicated in my 
letter of instruction from the President and by 
him publicly stated, was, through a friendly visit 
and personal acquaintance with the officers of the 
governments and peoples of the Caribbean republics, 
to put our relations with them upon a basis of bet- 
ter understanding. 

It is well known by those who have given 
attention to conditions in some of the countries I 
have visited that misrepresenting the attitude and 
purposes of the United States toward them has 
for many years been a feature of their democratic 
politics, and it is equally well known that there has 
existed in the United States a small coterie of 
directly interested persons who have been endeav- 
oring to block reforms essential to the progress of 
some of the weaker republics which would break 
down political abuses through which they were 
profiting and a wretched despotism was being 
upheld. 

The operation of these two forces upon political 
progress in the countries affected by them has been 
deadly, and the misrepresentations of us to them 
and of them to us has rapidly jeopardized friendly 

205 



206 STATEMENT TO THE PRESb. 

and normal international relations by crystallizing 
misunderstanding into prejudice. This situation 
has been greatly aggravated by the seeming inability 
through news channels of getting important and 
substantial truth either into or out of some parts, 
especially of Central America. 

What effect my visit may have in permanently 
improving our relations with and conditions in the 
countries I have visited is largely a matter of con- 
jecture. I prefer at this time to make no predic- 
tions beyond this: That in the concrete case of 
Nicaragua, if our Senate will consent to the ratifi- 
cation of the treaty with that country now before 
it, the effect will be instantaneously beneficial and 
new life and hope will inspire a people who for 
years have been the victims of a crushing despotism. 

The means through which the President felt 
that good results might be accomplished were dili- 
gently employed. Every facility was furnished in 
each country visited for meeting under the most 
delightful auspices the officials of the government 
and all classes of the people. Full and frank con- 
versations I have had with the responsible people 
of different countries, both those in official and 
private life, and the exceptional facilities I have 
enjoyed through the members of the American 
press accompanying me in getting popular expres- 
sion, especially from those in opposition to the 
governments, certainly have furnished me with a 
better understanding of these governments and 



KNOX. 207 

peoples and enabled me clearly to set before them 
the attitude of the United States toward them. 

It was most gratifying to observe the genuine 
friendliness toward and interest in the people of the 
United States in all the countries I visited and 
the warmth of its manifestation when the real pur- 
pose of my mission was appreciated. In no country 
was our reception one of mere formal courtesy. 
We left each country with the firm belief that we 
were better understood when we left than when we 
came, and that the almost indescribably bountiful 
hospitality and kindness showered upon us reflected 
a sentiment as cordial as it was generous toward the 
country and the people whom we represented. 

In view of the repeated and emphatic announce- 
ments of the Monroe Doctrine at all periods in our 
history, and by all shades of domestic political opin- 
ions, and the emphasis which seems to have been 
given to that doctrine by the extreme care the 
Senate recently took to prevent the possibility of 
any phase of its assertion being submitted to arbi- 
tration, I am more than ever convinced of the logic 
and wisdom of our helping the weaker republics to 
help themselves to avoid specific conditions where 
we might be embarrassed by its assertion. 

The almost incalculable native wealth of the 
Caribbean countries, the great variety and beauty 
of scenery, and the salubrity of climate are the 
physical conditions that most impressed us. 

With political and financial stability in such 



208 STATEMENT TO THE PRESS. 

countries where these conditions are now wanting, 
and under the benevolent sway of peace, there is 
bound to be a steady development of their resources 
and a growing appreciation of their natural charms 
and attractions. 

O 



